A New View of Evil
by creativelybored
Summary: Will's cousin, Nina, comes to Heatherfield for an art exhibition, expecting boredom and family awkwardness. What she isn't expecting is adventure, magic, and a really attractive villain... p.s. this story is set when W.I.T.C.H. and Nina are 16 (OC)
1. Chapter 1

I rested my head on the window, staring at the passing buildings of Heatherfield, at the school called Sheffield, and the sidewalks filled with people milling around. Mom was in the driver's seat, her eyes glued to the road. "We're almost there, Nina," she said, noticing my boredom. I looked at her. "Why does this city have to be so big? I won't ever find my way anywhere." My left hand twisted the ring on my right middle finger nervously. Growing up in a small town can either make you excited or terrified by big cities. I was the latter, told by my dad for sixteen years how dangerous they were. "Will can show you around. She's off school this week."

Right. Will, the cousin that I hadn't seen since we were twelve. Her mom and mine are sisters and used to see each other all the time, but when Aunt Susan saw a big job opportunity in Heatherfield, she had packed herself and Will up and they had moved to the city the same week. Mom and Aunt Susan thought they were growing apart.

Meanwhile, one of my paintings had been accepted into a traveling art exhibition, one that would be going straight to Heatherfield. Mom had been so happy that day, making plans to "follow the exhibition and catch up with family members."

So here we were, cruising through downtown Heatherfield in Mom's purple MINI Cooper. Heading to see Aunt Susan and Will.

Mom put the MINI in park, and I suddenly realized that we were in a parking lot. As soon as the engine was off, I opened my door and stepped out. A cool breeze blew on my face. I looked up at the enormous apartment building blocking the sun.

"Dang," I whispered under my breath.

Mom grabbed her suitcase from the back of the car. "Nina, come get your stuff."

I did as I was told, hauling my green cheeta-print suitcase across the asphalt to the doors of the complex. We didn't say a word to each other as she pressed the button to go to the third floor.

We weren't the only ones in the elevator. After we got in, we were followed by a group of four girls and a guy.A blonde girl went to press three, too, but realized that it had already been pressed, and stepped back. The next ten seconds brought an awkward silence that lasted from the time the doors closed to when they opened again. The group let Mom and me go first, and we all walked down the hall. Mom and I stopped at Will's apartment door, and so did they.

"Oh, you guys must be Will's family!" A small Chinese girl piped up.

Mom nodded. "Are you friends of Will's?"

The guy scratched the back of his head while the blonde girl replied, "Yeah. Wanna knock for us?"

Mom did. Susan answered after the third knock. "Nat!" She squealed, hugging my mom. Behind her I could see Will. She waved at me, embarassed.

When Susan pulled away from Mom, she looked at me. "And Nina, you've gotten so tall!"

In truth I had only grown an inch since I was twelve, but I didn't feel like telling her that as she pulled me in for a quick embrace. She noticed the group behind me and gestured for everyone to come in.

"Looks like we're having a party!" Susan clapped her hands together as we all came inside.

I went up to Will. "Hey," I said, feeling pretty dumb for having nothing better to say.

"Hey," she said back. At least we were both still awkward.

Back before she moved away, Will and I were actually really close. We both knew everything about the other, like how I used to sleep with a stuffed purple unicorn until I was eleven (and still do to this day sometimes), or how Will buried her mom's favorite ring in my backyard as revenge for her mom taking away her pacifier when we were two. Like our mothers, though, we had grown apart.

The boy came over to Will and whispered something in her ear. "Oh, right." She said, then jabbed her thumb at him. "Nina, this is Caleb. Caleb, this is Nina."

"Um, hi." I said. He nodded at me in acknowledgement and pulled on Will's arm. I could've sworn he said something like, "Come on. Guardian business. _Urgent_ business."

"Nina, uh, you and I are sharing a bedroom. It's down the hall, to the left. I'll be right back." She followed Caleb out the door and so did the others.

The Chinese girl waved at me before leaving. "Bye, Nina! Nice to meet you!"

I waved back as she left.

"They're just goung out to finish an essay at Taranee's house," Susan said. "Will will be back soon. Why don't you get settled in Will's room while I make some dinner?"

"No, _I'll_ make dinner, Susan," Mom said. I can't even begin to count how many times Mom's told me how bad a cook Susan is. I smiled and went back to Will's room.

A pigsty. That's all I could say about the bedroom I was in. I couldn't help but sigh in relief knowing that Will hadn't changed at all.

But that's when I noticed it:

A necklace hanging on a lamp, the pink gem of it glowing as if it was alive.


	2. Chapter 2

I was poking the glowing gem with my finger when the ring on my right hand literally began burning into my skin. With a tiny yelp, I yanked it off and dropped it on the floor.

The gem that usually changed color with my mood had turned a fiery red, even brighter than when I was as angry as I could get.

"What the...?" I whispered as the necklace on the lamp glowed so much that the whole room was engulfed in a pink light. A low humming filled the air.

Then, a quick burst of wind blew my red-blonde hair from my face, and just as suddenly as it had started, the weird necklace-ring reaction ended. I realized I was gasping for breath. My heart thudded in my chest. Slowly, I knelt down and lightly brushed my fingertips over my ring, and the overly-sensitive stone set in it turned from red to a dark grey. The metal didn't burn me, so I picked it up.

As I was sliding it back on my finger, confused about what had just happened, the door to Will's room flew open.

"Nina! Um, hi!" Will said a tad too loudly, crossing the room to stand in front of the lamp.

She took the necklace from it. I noticed she was panting, like she had been running to get back to her room. "Forgot this. My...lucky necklace. Can't write an essay without it!" And she was out the door again.

Out of habit, I began twisting my ring around my finger, despite what it had done to me last time I had it on.

Something smelled fishy, and it wasn't just that pile of trash in the other corner of the bedroom.

Will had gotten home right as we were sitting down to dinner. Her hair was in disarray and there were a few scratches down her arms and legs.

"What, did you get attacked by a cat while you were writing your essay?" I asked as she sat down. Susan snorted.

Will pulled her sleeve down to hide the scrape. "I tripped on the sidewalk outside."

"So, um..." Susan said to avoid an awkward silence. "Will, we were just discussing how you and your friends were going to show Nina around tomorrow."

"Oh, right." Will said, nodding along. Her acting skills were brilliant, but I had known her for so long that I could tell she was trying to cover something up. Something was wrong.

I poked at my mashed potatoes with my fork. The stone in my ring was slowly turning brown, which meant I was frustrated. Why wouldn't she tell me what was going on? I mean, we used to be like sisters. Now she wouldn't even meet my eyes.

After dinner, Will went straight to bed, claiming she was pretty much wiped out. I followed. As soon as I closed the door behind me, I asked, "Will, what's wrong?"

She turned her head to look at me from her position on her bed. "Just stuff."

I rolled my sleeping bag out on the floor, having to clear away junk to do so. "What kind of stuff?"

"Oh, you know. Boys. Friends Boyfriends." She blew a piece of red hair from her face.

I decided to drop it for now, instead asking, "So where are you going to show me tomorrow? Any hangouts? A mall, maybe?"

"Sure. Hay Lin's family also owns a restaurant, so we're probably going to eat lunch there." Will stared at the ceiling.

I couldn't think of anything else to say to continue the conversation, so I kept making a bed on the floor for myself in the silence. Will fell asleep about ten minutes later. I noticed the necklace was in her hand.

It took me about five minutes with Taranee to realize that she was afraid of _everything_. We saw a spider on the sidewalk, and she literally tried to jump into my arms. Hay Lin had to pick it up (which, in truth, that part sort of grossed me out, too) and put it in the grass. There was also a similar reaction when a squirrel jumped out of a tree _five_ _freaking_ _yards_ away. Let's just say that by the time we had sat ourselves down at the Silver Dragon, Hay Lin's family resaurant, I had heard enough about germs and rabies. I sat between Irma and Will, as far away from Taranee as possible.

"So, Nina, where are you from?" Cornelia asked. She had also gotten on my nerves, too, what with her stupid egocentricism. The fact that she was way prettier than me didn't help, either.

"Venice." I had to bite my lip to keep from smiling. I knew what kind of reaction I was going to get out of her.

Her eyes bugged out of her head. "As in, Italy? Really?"

Will, who was in on the joke, started laughing, and so did I.

"No. As in Oklahoma." I said, then faked an Italian accent. "Do Iya talk a like this eh?" It wasn't that funny, but everyone cracked up anyway. Cornelia's face turned a shade of red I didn't even think was possible for human skin to turn.

When Will stopped laughing, she turned to me. "Remember in second grade when we had that boy convinced we were from Italy?"

I laughed even harder. "Yeah, and that gluing your dog's shedded fur on your coat and wearing it in public got you all the girls there? God, that kid never had a chance!"

"Aww, you guys are bonding again!" Hay Lin said, excited.

If the group hadn't been distracted by Will and me, they would have seen what I saw then: a man with a blonde ponytail looking into the window, grinning maliciously when he saw Will.

We were all walking to the mall via a shortcut though a back road when Hay Lin suddenly stopped and turned pale.

"I hear something." She gasped, a look of alarm on her face.

Caleb whirled around. "What is it?"

"Cedric." She whispered.

"Who?" I asked.

No one answered my question.

"How far away?" Matt asked, hovering protectively behind Will as she clutched her "lucky necklace" tightly.

"He's getting closer."

Then we all heard it. A weird slithering sound, definitely something heavy moving over the concrete. A hiss.

"Snakeface," Irma muttered.

Will took a deep breath and glanced at me. "Nina, don't...freak out or anything, okay?"

A large shadow fell over the wall behind us, whatever was casting it about to turn the corner.

"Why would I-"

"Guardians, unite."

Light so bright that I had to cover my eyes filled the alley for about two seconds, and then the girls all emerged wearing outfits that put the fairies in that one TV show to shame. All were dressed in turquoise and pink shirts and skirts (except for Taranee's spandex-like bottoms), along with green and turquoise-striped tights and strange-looking shoes.

Oh, yeah, and they had _wings_.

"What...?" I was at a loss for words as Matt transformed into a winged, masked, crazy-haired, buff guy.

The hissing was so close now that it echoed off the walls.

"We'll explain later." Caleb, who remained the same, mumbled to me.

All of a sudden, a face appeared around the corner. At least five feet long and three feet wide, it had an ugly, grinning mouth filled with sharp teeth and eyes surrounded by a red mask-like skin. The face was followed by a big, muscular torso covered scales, and a super long, super thick green snake tail. The monster had to be at least twenty feet tall.

"Hello, _Guardianssss_."

**Note: Thanks to everyone who reviewed/followed/favorited my story last chapter. I'm really excited about this story! Also, I am always accepting requests and ideas, so feel free to PM me if you have any thoughts or comments or anything like that.**

**Thanks again! :) **


	3. Chapter 3

Caleb stepped in front of me protectively, since all I had to defend myself was the cell phone in my pocket. He was also blocking me from the monster's view, because it hadn't seen me yet.

"Cedric." Will growled.

A bunch of creepy, mangled-looking monsters started pouring out of the space behind the snake man, running at the girls and Matt and Caleb...and me. Holy Crap.

Everything happened in slow motion. The girls shot up in the air, along with Matt, and Caleb began pummeling all the minions that came our way. I spotted a lead pipe I could use to hit the big creeps by a nearby dumpster, and I made a mad dash for it. Even though I couldn't quite comprehend what the haeck was going on and none of this could even possibly be real, I wanted to help my cousin and her friends anyway. The tip of a snake tail swept my feet out from under me, and I found myself landing painfully on my hands, scraping both my palms and possibly twisting my wrist. My ring turned black. i got back up and dove for the pipe, landing next to it on my stomach. Just as I rolled over with it in my hands, a creep lunged for me. I swung the pipe and hit it on the side of its head. The pipe made contact with a crack. I jumped up to make a swing at another one. It smacked him square in the face and he staggered back, wailing in pain.

_How_ _can_ _I_ _be_ _doing_ _this_? I asked myself. _I_'_m_ _against_ _violence_!

Despite my mental objections, I hit another minion to my left and watched him fall over. All I could do now was fight. I didn't even want to think of what would happen if one of those things got me.

The giant snake tail swiped at me again, and I ducked. With a precision I never knew I had, I whacked another dude. I looked up to see all the girls fighting: Irma shooting water out of her hands and Taranee sending fire balls flying at the enemy from her hands as well. Hay Lin kept on reappearing in random places in the battle, like she was turning invisible and moving before becoming visible again. Cornelia summoned plants and rocks from the ground and wrapped huge vines around minions. Will was creating some kind of pink energy from her hands and dropping it on snake guy. He howled in annoyance at her.

Matt was off to the side, laser beams coming out of his eyes, incinerating everything in their path. Caleb was a few feet away, fending off some creeps.

Another one came up behind me and knocked me over. Standing over me, he grinned. "Humans. So weak." He raised his axe/sword/whatever the heck it was. I braced myself, but then a fire ball came out of nowhere, pushing him out of the way.

Taranee gave me a thumbs-up before going off to fight some more.

I spun around to hit one in the stomach. I guess years of playing softball can really pay off in self defense. The giant snake tail tried to take me out again, but I jumped over it.

A giant roar that echoed around us and at least three blocks down the road erupted, stopping everyone in their tracks. We all turned to see snake man climbing through something that resembled a rip in fabric, except it was blue and glowing. The minions all followed him, even though Will and her friends were trying to slow them down. Once the last one was through, the rip closed and disappeared.

I felt my mouth fall open in shock when I realized that they had gone _in_ it, not _through_ it.

Will landed in front of me. "Nina? Please don't freak out on me."

Caleb helped Cornelia up a few feet away. "Give her a minute to adjust."

"Yeah," Irma said, landing beside Will, "it's not every day that you find out that your cousin and her friends are secretly pixie warriors who defend the universe from evil creatures that want to take it over."

"Nina?" Will asked.

I blinked.

"Do you think she's in shock?" Asked Hay Lin, coming up behind Irma.

I shook my head, coming out of my daze. "No, I'm not in shock. I'm just...trying to figure it out." My mind tried to make sense of it all. Okay, one: Will and her friends weren't normal. Two: we all just fought some really creepy man-snake thing and his even creepier minions, who mysteriously disappeared into some kind of rip in the air. And three: I was oddly okay with it.

As I thought through everything, I twisted the ring on my finger. The stone was a bright and vibrant yellow, signaling my mixed emotions.

I took a deep breath. "Who was that? And...what's with the getup?"

"We'll explain everything at my apartment." Will assured me. Then they all changed back into their normal clothes, and she put her necklace back in her pocket.

At her apartment, we found a note on the fridge saying that Susan and Mom had left to go shopping and that they'd be home by five.

"Good. That'll give us plenty of time," Taranee said, leaning against the counter.

"So where should we start?" Hay Lin asked as she took an M&M from the bowl on the table.

Matt, who was now back to normal, stood next to Will. "Explain it the same way you guys explained it to me."

Will nodded. "Okay. Let's start with who that was. That was Cedric, a sort of...um...right-hand-man to our main enemy, an evil tyrant and ruler of Meridian named Phobos. Meridian is another planet, pretty much home to most of the evil forces we've fought. About two and a half years ago, Phobos tried to drain his long-lost sister, our friend Elyon Brown, of her powers, but he failed, only getting about half of them. We thought we had beaten him and returned Elyon's powers back to her. Apparently, we didn't do a very thorough job, because a year ago, Phobos came back, more powerful than ever. He overthrew Elyon, who had taken her rightful place as queen of Meridian. He imprisoned her somewhere i9n the castle, but we can't seem to locate her."

"As for us," Cornelia said with a flip of her hair, "we're kind of like the protectors of Meridian, and that funky necklace, which I'm sure you've noticed, is the source of our powers. It transforms us into what the people on other planets call Guardians. We call ourselves W.I.T.C.H."

"Because of your initials." I said.

Caleb nodded. "Any questions?"

I bit my lip. "So this...this Phobos guy-he wants to take over the universe...and you're the only ones stopping him." It wasn't a question. I knew it was true.

Will put a hand on my arm. "We've got it under control. I promise."

Irma snorted. "I wouldn't exactly call what happened last night 'under control'." She made quotation marks in the air with her fingers.

"Shush!" Cornelia elbowed her.

"OW!" Irma elbowed her back.

"Why?" I asked. "What happened last night?"

Taranee pushed her glasses further up her nose. "Phobos figured out another mystical power the Heart has."

"The Heart?"

"The Heart of Kandrakar." Will pulled the necklace out of her pocket. "Every planet has its own heart. We get our powers from Kandrakar."

"What kind of mystical power does it have?" I looked down at my ring, which I was once again twisting around my finger, the stone still yellow. I remembered what had happened between my ring and the Heart.

Hay Lin took another M&M. "Sometimes, if a piece of jewelry, or any object, really, that has a significant meaning to its owner comes into contact with the Heart, it can gain some magical qualities."

"Like what?" The stone on my ring quickly turned orange from my nervousness.

"We don't know. Phobos was talking about it before we ambushed him. He was going to try to steal it from Will for about the millionth time." Irma shook her head.

We all sat in silence while I digested all the information I had just been told.

"So?" Will asked.

"So?" I looked at her.

"Are you gonna freak out?"

I laughed. "No. I want to help. Tell me what to do."


	4. Chapter 4

**Note: Sorry that it's taken so long to post this! I had a little bit of writer's block on this chapter, and if any of it seems funky or unlikely, I'm sorry. Thank you for waiting and enjoy! ;)**

After everyone left, Will was making a piece of toast when the oven said, "Don't you wanna put butter on it?"

I shrieked. Will chuckled and shushed me. "Oh, yeah. I can talk to electronics. It's...uh...my power."

"And they talk back?" I cautiously twisted my ring.

"Yeah. Usually people don't hear them except my friends and me. It's not exactly the greatest power in the world, but at least the fridge tells me when my food expires."

"And that would be the strawberry yogurt from a month ago." came a voice from inside the fridge.

I opened the door and looked inside. Sure enough, a bowl of pink yogurt was sitting on the top shelf in front. I sniffed it. "Ew. This smells like my grandma's roadkill casserole." I threw it away, my nose wrinkled in disgust.

"Roadkill casserole?"

"Don't ask."

Mom and Susan got home around six-thirty, despite what their note had said. Mom held up a shopping bag. "I found the cutest little purse for you, Nina! It was so pretty, I just had to buy it." She pulled out a small highlighter-blue handbag from the plastic one. The rhinestones on it shone in the light, forming a glittering rose. I actually kind of liked it.

"Thanks, Mom. It's cute. I like it." I took the clutch from her and smiled. I tried not to make a big scene about it because I knew that Will and her Susan weren't exactly that well off. Then Will and I turned to go back to her room.

"And Nina?" I stopped and looked over my shoulder. "The exhibition wants you to come in on Wednesday to talk about your painting."

Oh. Right. The exhibition. I hadn't really thought about that since we got to Heatherfield, what with all the craziness with Will and her friends and everything else. "Okay."

Will and I finally got back to her room, and as we were settling down, her cell phone rang.

"Hello?"

While she talked, I put the purse in my suitcase.

"...Uh huh...yeah...What?!"

My head snapped up at her exclamation. "What's wrong?" I whispered.

"Okay. Be there in a minute." She flipped the phone shut.

I raised an eyebrow. "So?"

Will ran a hand through her hair. "Matt just called and some of the animals at his grandpa's pet shop got out of their cages somehow. I'm gonna go help."

"Um...okay." I said, trying my hardest to not show that I still had questions.

"Be back in a little bit." She winked at me and left the room.

I sighed. "Right." My ring had turned a yellow-green color. It often turned that color when I was fighting with my sister, Jackie. She was in her second year of college and was shooting for a future in Oceanography. As calm and laid back as both of us were, we did tend to fight over little things, like how I wore her favorite blue sweater, or when Mom and Dad split up for awhile and we were just riled up from their fighting.

I felt a sudden pang in my heart. I missed Jackie. And Dad, who couldn't come with Mom and me to Heatherfield because he had a business meeting in Tokyo.

I stood up and examined the walls of Will's room, which I had failed to do the night before. Frogs. Frogs everywhere. Same old Will.

A bird suddenly hit the window, and I flailed backwards, my hand forming a fist to keep my ring on it as it swung wildly around. I landed on my butt. I don't think the pain registered, though, when I looked up to find the same kind of rip in the air that I had seen that afternoon: glowing, blue, and creepy.

I had to cover my mouth to keep myself from screaming.

"What...?" I got back up slowly and walked around it. Millions of thoughts echoed around my head at once. Were the monsters still inside? Were they going to come out and eat me or kill me or whatever they did to their victims? Where did the rip lead?

I gasped as I saw that from the side, the rip was about as thin as looseleaf paper, but from the back and front (whichever was which), it was about the width of my shoulders.

The bright sky-blue vortex called to me. My protests and fears were replaced by a gigantic need to see what was on the other side, what would happen if I stepped through it. Without really thinking, I took one step forward; then another, until my nose was barely a centimeter from it. Then I stuck my arm in it. No pain, just a weird tingling. My shoulder followed my arm, and then my leg was through, then my head (my eyes tightly shut), and the rest of my body. The tingling stopped instantly once my whole body was through, and I opened my eyes. The first thing I noticed was the dimness of the passageway. The only light came from eerie green torches on the walls and the glowing of the portal behind me. But then the glowing was gone. I whirled aroun to find that the tear had disappeared.

"No!" I yell-whispered.

I bit my lip and turned a whole 180 degrees to survey the corridor I was in. It looked like I had traveled to some creepy medieval castle somehow, and whoever owned it had a taste for elegance to a point. Strong and beautiful columns held the domed ceiling high and proud, and from what I could see of the paintings on the walls, they were framed with golden frames with delicate patterns on them. But the darkness and evil feeling were even more overpowering than the looks, and I frantically began to try to remember how the rip had appeared in Will's room so I could make it happen again and get the heck out of that place.

"Okay," I whispered, "so I was scared by the bird, and then-"

I was cut off by footsteps echoing off the walls and the sound of gruff voices. I gasped and searched the place for a hiding spot. I found one behind a giant suit of armor to my left, and I dashed behind it just as two of the monsters that we had fought in the alley strode around the corner.

"I honestly wonder if Cedric made the right choice attacking the Guardians at that time. Sure, they were vulnerable, but the grounds for the battle benifited them, not us." Came a low voice, hushed so only his partner could hear.

The other shook his head. "I'm still angry that I was taken down by a human. A human!" He shook his fist. "If I see that girl again, I will make sure I crush her personally!"

That's when I saw the absence of his helmet and the giant lump on the side of his head. He rubbed it gently.

That was the one I had knocked unconscious with the pipe! I sighed, glad I hadn't killed him even though he tried to kill me.

Helmetless stopped and sniffed the air. "Do you smell that?"

"Smell what?" The second one asked.

"I smell...vanilla."

I sniffed my hair. Crap! Stupid vanilla-scented shampoo! I cowered closer to the wall, trying to wedge myself deeper between it and the suit of armor. This was not good. Not good at all.

"My nose was broken in the fight. I can't smell anything." Said the second one. "Besides, your head might just be playing tricks on you."

Helmetless nodded. "I think you're right. Let's go, before Phobos makes our lives more miserable than they already are."

Then they were gone.

I let my breath out in a rush. Close call.

When I was sure that no one else was coming, I got out from behind the suit of armor and picked the way the monsters had come from. As I walked, my mind still searched for the reason the tear had opened and how exactly it had transported me here. Rational thoughts were pretty much useless now that I had found out about Will and her friends. Everything that I had been taught to believe was wrong. I twisted my ring around my finger, not even bothering to look at the stone.

I turned out of the passageway and into a room about twice the size of my house back in Venice, with a staircase off to one side and two huge doors on the wall across from where I stood. I realized then that two guards were standing on either side of the doors, and I quickly ducked behind another suit of armor before they saw me.

How was I ever going to get out of this place?

Trying to calm my pounding heart, I took a few deep breaths. That's when I heard it: a slithering, as if a giant snake was moving over the stone floor. I lowered myself down so I was in a ball behind the suit of armor and rested my head on my knees, not wanting to see snake man again. The slithering passed right by me.

"Let me in." Came that serpent-like voice, the one that I remembered from the alley. I could hear the doors being opened, and then the slithering turned to footsteps.

"It's about time." Said another voice; silky, smooth, and full of malice. Then the doors closed.

I pulled my head away from my knees. "Okay, Nina. You're going to be fine. Don't panic. Don't freak out." I whispered to myself as quietly as I could.

"Do you need help getting out of here?"

I looked up, startled, to the source of the voice. A guard stood in front of the suit of armor, not looking at me, but I could tell he was talking to me. He held out a hand.

I didn't answer him. I sat still, hoping beyond hope he hadn't seen me.

"I'm a friend of the Guardians." He whispered to me. "My name is Tynar."

Still not knowing if I could trust him, I bit my lip.

"You're going to be found by someone less kind if you stay there." Said Tynar.

"How should I know if I should trust you?" I asked, my voice low.

"Tynar? Why are you standing there?" One of the guards by the doors shouted.

Tynar dropped his hand, which had still been held out to me. Then he turned and pointed to my suit of armor. "Spy!"

"Crap!" I cursed as he pulled me out of my hiding place, but the his hand was over my mouth.

"Go along with it." He whispered in my ear.

"How did she even get in here?" The guard to the left of the doors asked ashe walked forward.

"Beats me." Tynar shrugged.

The doors suddenly crashed open. There was snake man, just as big, bad, and creepy as last time I saw him. But hovering in the air beside him was a man. His long, impossibly light blond hair had braid-like dreads hanging down the front, almost even with his dark robes, and I could see two more on his back, along with the rest of his hair, which was down and about to his waist. The man floated towards us, snake man following.

"And who is this?" He looked at my clothes. "Not from here, obviously."

Snake man hissed as he slithered closer. "Sshhe wasss fighting with the Guardiansss when I ambussshhed them."

I was screwed. No, beyond screwed. I was dead. I was going to die. I tried to avoid looking at the man's face.

"Frost!" The man addressed the guard to the right of the doors. "Gather a team and search the castle for the Guardians."

The guards did as he said. He landed in front of me, and I could barely keep myself from staring into those deep blue eyes. "What do they want this time? Food for the rebels? Elyon's freedom? Have they not realized that I will not allow it? Are they not weakened from last night?" He began to stare at me intently, almost like he was trying to hypnotize me. "Who are you?"

Tynar kept his hand firmly clasped on my mouth. "I'll take this one to the dungeons, my prince. The Guardians might try to save her. She'll be the perfect bait."

Prince? So this was Prince Phobos? Dang.

Phobos broke the stare and waved his hand. "Yes, do that. And when the Guardianscome to save her, make sure you dispose of them immediately. Do not disappoint me, Tynar." Then he went back to hovering in the air, and he flew back into the room without looking back. Snake man glared at me.

"Perhapsss an essscort will ensssure you don't get out asss easssily asss you got in." He said.

I had to keep myself from biting Tynar's hand and saying, "Um, I think not."

Snake man slithered past us and lead the way. We went back through the corridor we came from, then took several right turns and descended down about five sets of stairs, each with about a hundred steps each. If I hadn't known that the palace was the root of all evil (and I wasn't being escorted by two monsters), I actually might have admired the architecture. We stopped in front of a long row of barred cells. Snake man opened the door to one and Tynar threw me in.

Yeah, some friend of the Guardians he was.

Snake man grinned at me as he closed the and locked the cell door. "Not ssso bold now, are we, human?"

I cowered back into the wall behind me. Snake man laughed and then slithered out, handing the keys to Tynar.

Once he was gone, Tynar said, "I'm not going to hurt you."

"Well, I'm in a dungeon, so I think the damage is already done." I retorted.

He scratched his head beneath his helmet. "How are the Guardians? Are they here with you?"

I crossed my arms over my chest. "They're fine and no."

"Then how did you get into the castle without being seen?"

I still didn't trust him, but I told him anyway. "I...I don't know. One second I was on Earth and then a big blue rip in the air opened up and I stepped through and now I'm here." I twisted my ring around my finger.

Wait! My ring!

My mind went back to when I had fallen backwards. The hand with my ring on it had closed to a fist to keep it on, then slashed across the air. Because i was in shock, I hadn't realized that the tear had appeared right there in that spot, at that exact time!

"That's it!" I whispered.

"What?" Tynar asked.

I shushed him. "I'm getting out of here."

"How?"

Mimicking my previous actions, I slashed my clenched fist across the air. Sure enough, a rip opened. I almost cried in relief. Then I turned to Tynar. "Look, I'm not sure if you're really good or not, but if you say a word of this to anyone, I will come back for you. With the Guardians. Thank you for not killing me."

I stepped through the tear, and once I was back on Earth, it closed behind me.

I didn't know that someone had been watching us.

**Thanks for reading and thank you to Lexvan for the idea of Nina's ring opening folds! Again, thank you to everyone who reviewed my story. It means a lot to me! :)**


	5. Chapter 5

**Alright, I'm back! Sorry for not posting for a while, but the holiday season is really busy for my family and me, and I forgot to tell you guys how long I'd be gone. The good news is that I've had more time to think about and ponder what is going to happen in this chapter, so I hope you like it! **

**p.s. I'm adding a new feature to some of my chapters to make it so everyone is not completely in the dark about what's going on. If a sentence is **_**italicized, **_**then the paragraph(s) that follow it are in the 3****rd**** person.**

**Enjoy!**

****_**Meanwhile, in Phobos' throne room…**_

"That girl wasss new." Cedric said as Phobos leaned his elbow on the arm of his throne, bored. "I've never ssseen her before."

Phobos rolled his eyes. "I still don't understand how she got into the castle without the Guardians with her." He scried for his newest prisoner. She was talking with Tynar.

"—how did you get into the castle without being seen?" He asked her.

The girl looked worried as she twisted a ring around her finger. "I…I don't know. One second I was on Earth and then a big blue rip in the air opened up and I stepped through and now I'm here." She was quiet for a minute, her fingers still turning the circlet frantically. Suddenly she gasped as if she had realized something. "That's it!"

"What?" Asked a confused Tynar.

The girl shushed him. "I'm getting out of here."

"How?"

Without an answer, the girl swiped a clenched fist, the one with the ring on it, across the air, which in turn opened a fold before her.

Phobos stood immediately. Cedric hissed. "Ssshall I—" Phobos held a hand up, listening and watching intently.

She turned to look back at Tynar, who stood with his mouth agape. "Look, I'm not sure if you're really good or not, but if you say a word of this to anyone, I will come back for you. With the Guardians. Thank you for not killing me." Then she stepped through, the fold closing behind her.

The image disappeared from the floor.

"Ssshall I organize a sssearch party for this girl?" Cedric asked.

"No." Phobos sat back down calmly.

"Then what do you propose to do?"

Phobos smirked, cool and collected. "The girl seemed surprised by this ability, as if she hadn't used it much. She might try to do research on it. Research in _books_."

Cedric nodded. "My book ssstore. Of courssse. But what of the Guardians? They know what my human from looks like. If I reopened the shop, looking the same, they would find me out."

"That is why I am doing this." Phobos extended a hand, and magic surrounded the giant snake humanoid, shrinking him until he resembled a man with dark hair and even darker eyes. While Cedric examined his new form, Phobos continued. "You will reopen the shop, and hen when the girl comes, find out as much about her as possible. New enemies, especially those who can open folds, should not be taken lightly. I want nothing to interfere with my plans of taking over Earth."

"Yes, my prince."

"Now go."

Cedric nodded, bowed, and left for Earth.

_**Now back to Nina….**_

I ended up in the park. Still sort of in shock from my little trip to evilville, I leaned against a tree to get my bearings. Everything was dark, except where lampposts gave off light along the path about three yards from where I stood. It had to be at least eight o'clock.

When I was sure I was calm enough to act sane, I pushed myself off the tree and got on the path. There wasn't anyone anywhere. It took me about ten minutes to find my way out of the park. The second I reached the sidewalk outside the brick walls, my cell rang.

"Hello?"

"Nina, where have you been?!" Mom's screeches filled my ear. "You did not ask to leave! Did you climb out the window?!"

I tried to make an excuse while my ear tried to adjust to the high-pitched yells coming from her side of the line. "Mom, chill. I left right after Will did. You watched me walk out the door." I hated lying to Mom.

"To hell I did! Where are you?" Ouch. Mom barely ever cussed, and when she did, it usually meant she was seriously ticked.

"Um…the park?"

"Why?"

"I uh…uh…I wanted to go jogging." It wasn't a bad lie—I often went jogging at night in Venice.

"Nina, you _know _how dangerous cities are. You could be kidnapped, or…or beaten!" Again with the big-cities-are-the-apex-of-evil speech. If only she had seen Meridian.

I sighed. "Mom, I'm fine. I'm coming back anyway."

"You'd better be. You worried Will and me sick!"

"Will's home?"

"She got here about an hour ago. She—" There was a voice on the other end. I heard Mom say, "Sure," and then crackling followed, like the phone was being handed to someone.

"Nina?" The voice asked. I immediately recognized it as Will's.

I began walking down the sidewalk. "Will, there's something I need to tell you."

I heard a door shut in the background. She was probably in her room. "What? Did something happen?"

"I think I was just in Meridian."

"Where in Meridian?"

"The castle."

Will paused. "Did anyone see you?"

I crossed the street on a red light and put the hand not holding the cellphone in my jacket pocket. Hunched over against the cold, I bit my lip. "Um…if Phobos talks to you, does that mean he sees you?" My eyes darted from side to side, watching the people around me.

"What did he say? Did he hurt you? How were you seen?"

"A guy named Tynar—I don't know if he's on your side or not—he pointed me out and called me a spy. Phobos heard us and him and snake man talked. Phobos asked me what you guys want, but I didn't answer him. Snake man and Tynar threw me in a dungeon, and I figured out that my ring can open those rip thingies and I got out of there and ended up in the park and now I'm talking to you. Oh, and I'm fine, just struggling to hold on to my sanity." My steps became faster on the concrete.

Another pause followed as Will digested the information. "Tynar's with us. He was probably trying to help you get out. And your ring? How can it open folds?"

"I, um, I think—" I had to stop suddenly because I had crashed into someone—a hard, chiseled chest underneath a winter coat. Thrown off balance, I fell over, dropping my phone.

A hand reached out to me. "Sorry. Guess we were both in a hurry." Said the boy.

I took his hand, and he helped me up. I found myself staring up into two blue eyes, set in a handsome face. "Um…n-no, you're fine…" I stuttered. "I-I should have been watching where I was going. It's my fault. I'm sorry." I brushed my hair behind my ear awkwardly.

"You're not…from around here, are you? I'm sure I would have remembered that face." He grinned at me, showing two rows of perfect white teeth.

Was he…_flirting _with me? "Um…actually, I'm not. I'm here with my cousin while the art exhibition is in town."

"Sweet. You in it?"

It took me a minute to realize what he was asking. "In it? Oh, yeah! My painting. Right. Yeah, my painting's in it." Why was I telling all of this to a complete stranger? Was it because he was good-looking? Because that's a stupid reason.

He laughed at my confusion. _Did I just swoon? _"I never got your name."

"I never got yours."

"I'll give you mine if you give me yours."

"Nina." I scratched my neck, then began twisting my ring. "Nina Evers."

He held his hand out to me again, this time to shake mine. "Well, Nina Nina Evers, I'm Andrew Andrew Hornby."

I giggled in spite of myself as I shook his hand.

"So, uh, see you around, maybe?" He asked.

I nodded vigorously. "Just come to the art exhibition Wednesday and you'll find me."

The smile on his face grew wider. "Great. See ya." He waved and winked at me before continuing walking. I sighed and picked my cell phone up from the ground.

The first thing I heard when I put the phone to my ear was the low, monotonous hum that meant the other person had hung up. I hoped Will hadn't thought I'd been captured by snake man and run out to save me.

When I got back to Will's apartment building, I was greeted by Cornelia and Caleb.

"Nina, oh thank God." She said, strutting up to me. "We thought you were out freaking out somewhere because we showed you our secret."

I smiled. "No, I'm fine."

As we went up to Will's floor, I told them what had happened in Meridian.

_**At the abandoned bookstore downtown…**_

A tall, dark-haired man in a green button-down shirt tucked into jeans flipped the sign on the front door to OPEN as he had two years before.

But this time it would be different, for he knew who he was looking for…

**Thanks for being so patient and don't forget to follow or review! And again thanks to Lexvan for the Andrew Hornby idea!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Okay, I'm going to try to start posting these chapters once a week, preferably Fridays or Saturdays, but I couldn't get this one out of my head and it's all written anyways.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned W.I.T.C.H., then Elyon would be a heckuva lot smarter in the first season of the show. I mean, seriously. No offense to any Elyon-lovers out there, but it always bugged me how oblivious she was to the fact that her friends-her FRIENDS-were the ones trying to help her and her brother was the one who was trying to kill her. She wouldn't even let them friggin' talk!**

**Woah. Sorry about that rant, guys.**

**Anyways, this chapter is a belated New Year's gift. **

**Enjoy!**

On Tuesday afternoon, Will and I were walking dowtown discussing Meridian. I figured I might as well learn what I was dealing with since I was already in on it.

"Okay, so snake man can actually change into a human?" I asked as we passed a tattoo parlor where I could just see a boy with piercings on his nose and ears and lip and God-knows-where-else through the window.

"Yeah. That's how Phobos first got Elyon to trust him. He sent Cedric to Earth to work in a bookstore to find out who she was. We didn't suspect a thing until it was too late..." Will ducked her head.

I put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, you didn't know. It wasn't your fault. Don't be so hard on yourself."

She looked at the sidewalk ahead of us solemnly. "Our job is to know, Nina." Her voice had taken on a hard edge. "You saw Phobos. And Cedric. You understand what thay can do if we don't do our job right."

"Will, look on the bright side for just a minute, will you? You guys have friggin' powers and can transform into people with wings that actually allow you to fly. It's pretty cool when you think about it." I put a hand on my chest dramatically. "All I am is a lowly artist who can barely last a whole five seconds in fights with her older sister. Give yourself some credit, Couz."

Will looked at me and smiled. "You haven't changed a bit."

"And I don't plan to." I said, grinning back.

She went back to looking ahead of her, a small smile on her lips, until she suddenly stopped cold. Her eyes widened in alarm, and she took a step back.

"Will?" I asked. I followed her gaze to an old, run-down bookstore on the corner.

"Why would he...?" She muttered. She seemed to get over the shock and quickly started running towards the little shop.

"Will, what are you doing?" Iasked, breathless, as I struggled to keep up with her. She stopped outside the door, and I almost collided with her. The sign hanging on the inside of the glass said OPEN.

Will cautiously put a hand on the knob and twisted. She looked like she was trying to disarm a bomb. Inside the shop, it was nice and cozy, but I could see that shelves stretched a lot farther than I thought they would. It seemed bright and happy enough, but Will looked around, as if scanning the room for danger.

A man with dark brown hair and deep cocoa eyes came out from the back of the store. "Welcome! Is there anything you would like help finding?"

Will cocked her head at him, then realized he was asking a question one of us was supposed to be answering. "Oh, uh, no. Just checking this place out. I'm really glad it got opened back up." The look on her face showed that she was anything but. "We were just leaving."

The man looked at me when she said "we", as if noticing me for the first time. He smiled a friendly smile, but I couldn't help but notice that his fists were clenched.

Will cleared her throat. "Right, Nina?"

I smiled at Will sheepishly. "Um, actually, I kind of wanted to look around." Looking back to the man, I asked, "Do you have any of the new Windy City novels?"

He frowned, but only slightly. "I'm afraid I'm not exactly organized at the moment. Feel free to look around, though."

"Thanks." I glanced at Will to see if she was coming with me, then walked between the rows of shelves without waiting for her. Stopping at a random bookcase, I saw that she had. "Why didn't you tell me there was a book store?"

"It was closed last time I checked." She threw a look back over her shoulder to where the man had been, but he must have gone somewhere else. She leaned in closer and whispered, "This was Cedric's bookstore."

I gulped. "Oh."

Will shrugged. "I'm suspicious, but he doesn't look like he could do any damage. Except to Cornelia and Caleb's relationship."

I laughed. I hadn't really realized that the man had actually been a little cute.

"So...how's your dad?" I asked, then bit my lip. I knew it was a touchy subject for Will. The last thing I had ever heard about my uncle was that he and Susan had gotten divorced. And that was a long time ago.

She gently laid a delicate finger on the spine of a book at her eye level. "He's fine, I guess. He's dating a girl named Serena."

I nodded slowly. "And are you okay with that?"

"Yeah. She's pretty and nice. If Dad's happy, I'm happy."

"That's good."

"What about Jackie? Anything going on with her?"

I pulled a novel out at random and studied the cover. "She's in college, and has a really sweet boyfriend. Nothing much has changed since we were twelve."

Will's smile from earlier returned. "You know, I missed my favorite cousin."

"I know. I miss Amanda." Will and I both hated our second cousin Amanda, a typical popular girl with the looks of a supermodel and the brains of a gnat. Will playfully punched me in the shoulder. "Just kidding. I missed you, too."

_**A few bookcases down...**_

Cedric shelved the last book on his cart as he listened to the girls' conversation. It was definitely the same girl he had put in the dungeon, as she wore the exact ring that had opened th fold. He walked back out to the main room just as the two came out from their place in the maze of books.

"Did you find anything you like?" He asked them.

The Guardian leader shook her head, while the one with red-tinted blonde hair, Nina, smiled politely and said, "No, but thanks."

They walked out the door together, talking and laughing, as only family would. Cedric watched them with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Interesting..."

_**An hour later...**_

Phobos tilted his head to the side as Cedric finished his report. "So, the girl is the Guardian leader's cousin. This information could be of use. For now, just listen for attack plans if you can. And throw Tynar, that traitorous guard, in the dungeon."

Cedric nodded. "Yes, my lord." With that, he left the throne room.

Phobos reclined back in his throne. The image of the girl appeared on the floor. She looked to be with the Guardians, and the rebellion...

In Meridian.

A horn blared somewhere in the distance, signaling that the castle was being attacked. A plan hatched itself in the Prince's mind, and he chuckled darkly.

"Let the games begin, _Nina_."

_**Nina's POV**_

As soon as Will and I got back to her apartment, we saw that her friends were all gathered there in the living room.

"It's about time." Irma said, standing up from her seat on the couch and stretching.

"What are you guys doing here?" Will asked.

Taranee turned off the TV while Caleb leaned forward so his elbows were on his knees. "Tynar's locked up and the rebels and I need your help with a raid."

"Wait, Tynar as in the guy who helped me?" I asked.

Will nodded to me and then looked back to Caleb. "How long will it take? When do we have to leave? Our moms get back from the movies in about three hours."

"The rescue might be a little tricky, but if everything goes right, that and the raid should only take about two hours, tops. And preferably now."

"Right." Will turned to me. "Nina..."

I shook my head. "No. I'm in on this. You didn't turn Matt away, and you're not turning me away, either. I can always flash my way out of there if I have to." I showed her my ring to remind her.

"But-" Will began.

Matt cut her off. "She's right, Will. Besides, I can help her."

Caleb watched our exchange curiously. "She is really good at hitting things with pipes..." he mused. "I could give you a sword."

"Sweet!" I could barely contain my enthuisiasm as I pumped my fist triumphantly like a little kid who just got free cookies. Hay Lin laughed.

Matt stood. "Cool. Let's go, then."

We slid into a dark alley, and Will looked from side to side before whispering, "Guardians, unite." Again I got to witness their transformation. The Heart rose in the air, along with Will, and each of the girls was encircled in a cocoon that corresponded with their elements. They emerged dressed in Guardian getup, and I felt a pang of jealousy that my cousin got to have powers and could fly, but that was quickly replaced by nervousness and excitement that I was getting to see the rebellion of Meridian for the first time and even helping with a raid.

Matt turned into his warrior form, with the mask and dreads. He glanced at Will, and they had some sort of silent conversation before he held a hand out to me. The gesture reminded me of Andrew Hornby a little bit, but I shook the thought out of my head and took his hand.

"I'm going to carry you, because we never know if we'll end up on the ground or in the air."

I wanted to point out that Caleb couln't fly, either, but I saw that Cornelia had already took him by the jacket and they were hovering a few feet in the air.

Will slashed the Heart across the air to open a tear, and she motioned for us to follow her through. Matt grabbed me under my arms and rose into the air, me closing my eyes out of instinct as we entered the blue brightness of the portal.

We emerged about a yard off the ground in some kind of forest. Matt lowered me to the leaf-covered dirt and landed beside me. Caleb, who had begun talking to the men in the group that was there, jabbed a thumb at me. One of them stepped towards me with a sword in his hand. "For you." He said.

"Thanks," I said, taking it from him. It was a little heavier than I expected, but after a few minutes, my arms adjusted to the weight. It was made of some kind of steel with a simple, copper-plated hilt. Holding a sharp weapon of death, I felt powerful.

Caleb turned back to the Guardians, Matt, and I. "Okay, here's the plan."

_**Fifteen minutes later...**_

Matt, Will, and I crouched behind a pile of barrels just outside the castle gates. Everyone else prepared to jump out and ambush the next guards that came out. Once the guards were taken down, their keys to the castle would be stolen and the rebels would sneak to the storage rooms, a few at a time, and steal supplies. I hadn't really listened to the part about getting the supplies out, because I wasn't participating in that section. The Guardians, Matt, and I were rescuing Tynar once all the attention was on the rebellion.

Two guards strolled out lazily, both huge and super-ugly. Across the path, I saw Caleb in the bushes signaling for the attack. Rebels swarmed out and overcame the surprised guards. Someone unhooked one of the guards' key rings from their belt. The first part had been over with in under a minute, and I sighed in relief. Maybe this wasn't going to be so hard.

The rebels broke into groups that went into the castle one at at a time. Screams and shouts came from the guards inside, and a horn blared in the distance, probably to alert the rest of the castle that we were attacking.

I heard Will mutter a curse under her breath. "That's not supposed to happen." She whispered. I peeked back around the barrels again and saw that the last group of rebels was entering the castle.

Matt poked Will in the side. "Come on. It's now or never."

Will nodded. She looked up to the trees lining the path and gestured for the other Guardians to come out.

Matt took me under the arms again, and we flew to a different entrance, this one much closer to the ground and resembling a sewer. Bars protected it, but with Taranee's fire, we got through that barrier in a matter of seconds. Matt and I went in after Will, and the rest followed behind us.

The small, cramped tunnel led to a roughly-stoned, dimly-lit hallway - which I immediately recognized as the dungeon. Will turned to us. "Okay. Irma, Hay Lin, and Taranee, you go to the left. Cornelia, Nina, Matt, and I will go to the right. We meet back here in thirty minutes, and if we have Tynar, then great, but if we don't, then we'll just have to find another way." Everyone nodded and followed her directions.

It took about five minutes for us to find the cells on our side, and we freed numerous rebels before we found Tynar. He was sitting slumped in the corner of his cell, leaning against the earthy wall and rocking back and forth slowly. His face was hidden from us.

I knew something wasn't right. Tynar didn't seem like the cower-in-the-corner type, no matter where he was.

Cornelia used her power over earth to open the door. Will walked towards him slowly.

"Will..." I said uneasily. Fear clutched my stomach like a giant fist - squeezing until I felt actual pain. "Will, I don't think..."

Will touched Tynar's shoulder. "Tynar?"

The body stopped rocking, and the head twisted to face her slowly, like in those horror movies when the little kid suddenly looks at their parents and-

The face, not Tynar's, morphed into something that would haunt my nightmares for many weeks to come, and screamed at Will. She stumbled backwards, holding her ears. Cornelia and I covered our ears as well against the shrieking, and Matt, acting on instinct, sent laser beams at the figure. It dissipated into black smoke that formed a new profile. This one was more human, shrinking until it was still a tall male, but with flowing robes and hair. The smoke curled away until none other than Phobos stood before us, smirking.

"Hello, Guardians, friend, and cousin."

**Dun Dun Dunn...**

**No matter HOW hard I tried to focus on other things, I just could NOT get this chapter out of my head, so naturally I just had to write it. I promise that more action will come next chapter!**

**Hope you liked it and don't forget to review or follow or even favorite if you want :)**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey guys! :)**

**I've just realized that my schedule is forever changing, so my posts might vary between days. Most likely new chapters will be up by Monday morning.**

**Note: Will knows that she has Quintessence because without Elyon on the throne of Meridian, basically none of the plot of the second season could have happened, which means that she probably would never have figured it out. So just to make her a tad less defenseless in this version, I added her actual elemental power.**

**Enjoy!**

Will stepped in front of me. "Leave her out of this."

Cornelia hovered a few feet above the ground, as high as the roof would allow her, and three giant chunks of stone flew out of the wall behind her and shot towards Phobos. He deflected them easily, laughing. "Is that the best you can do?"

Matt did what he did best, shooting lasers at the tyrant, who again dodged the attack. Will looked around frantically to find something to use her power on, and she settled on a random suit of armor a few yards down the hall. It came to life and drew its sword.

Wait. Sword. I had a sword!

Phobos knocked Will away from me with a green blast of light, and sent another one straight for my head. I held the sword up in defense, and the light bounced off it and hit the wall immediately to his left. The suit of armor Will had animated charged forward, sword point aiming at Phobos' chest. Phobos moved and just barely escaped, and the side of the tip bit at his shoulder, cutting the sleeve of his robes and slicing his skin open. Blood trickled out.

"I think that's the first time I've ever seen him bleed." Matt muttered.

Phobos yelled in rage. The yell was a lot louder than it should have been, like it was running through the halls trying to find help. Phobos was showing weakness by bleeding. And he didn't like that. So he needed a distraction.

I realized I was still standing out in the open, so I ran to Will while Matt and Cornelia launched another attack together. She was sitting up slowly. I could tell she was fazed by the way she rubbed her forehead, then put her fingertips to her temples like she had so many times when she and I had conked heads when we were toddlers.

"I'm fine," she tried to assure me, but I could see that she wasn't. The corners of her eyes were tight as she scrunched her face in pain.

A scream came from behind us, and I whipped my head around to see Cornelia being thrown against a wall. Matt swiped at Phobos with his wings, but all he got in response was a sharp blow to the legs, and he was down, too. Phobos kicked his wings, flailed across the ground like Matt himself was, weak and vulnerable. "Pathetic." He spat. Then he looked up at us.

My eyes went wide with fear. I knew Will wasn't going to be able to fight. Even if we could summon a portal, either Phobos would follow us through it, or it would close before Cornelia and Matt got to it. The only way to go was back. Back down the halls, back through the tunnel, back above ground, then back home. And we had to run like heck to accomplish that.

Phobos took a step closer. "So which one of you wants to die first? The Guardian or the human? The hero or the tagalong?"

I sucked in a breath. Ouch. He'd just called me useless.

But I wasn't. I had my ring, and I still had a sword. As long as I had those and my pride, I could still hold him off. For a while.

Another step closer. I was still in my kneeling position next to Will, who was gasping in pain as she watched him approach. Why wasn't she even trying to hide her weakness?

Unless she knew something I didn't...

With one last stride, Phobos was right beside me. Will looked up at him defiantly, but it was obvious that she was struggling to keep it up. I gulped as my eyes found his face, towering above me.

"The tagalong it is," he held his hand in my face, and I could see the green light beginning to glow.

I couldn't die. Not like this. Not just because some prissy, spoiled prince said I wasn't good enough. Even with my eyes closed, I knew my ring had turned a violent shade of red, just like it had when it had reacted with the Heart. It burned into my skin, but I didn't bother to take it off. The pain meant he hadn't fired at me yet. The pain meant I was still alive.

I could smell a faint scent of some kind of soap. Lavender, maybe? Something dark. Something ominous. I heard the rustling of robes as he moved. "Or maybe you could tell me where you got that ring." The voice was right next to my face. He had squatted down beside me. His breath, cool and fresh, blew on my cheek.

I opened my eyes, only looking at the wall in front of me, watching him in my peripheral vision. He didn't know that it wasn't the ring that was special. It was the Heart. It always was. "A convenience store in Pennsylvania," I said to the wall.

When I was thirteen, Mom had had a moment of spontaneity and scheduled a flight for her, Dad, Jackie, and me to Niagara Falls. It had been the first time my whole family had been on a vacation since I was five. I didn't want to forget it, so Jackie and I bought matching mood rings from a gas station.

I realized with a pain in my chest that I hadn't seen Jackie since August, and it was January. She hadn't even come home for Winter Break.

The ring suddenly became a burden, and I tore it off my finger and dropped it on the ground. The clinking of the cheap metal on stone echoed off the walls of the dungeons. Everything was silent for five sweet milliseconds, and then light exploded everywhere.

I felt Phobos fall back from me, and I could hear Cornelia gasping loudly in the background. Will, who seemed to be the source of the light, squealed in surprise.

The flashes dazzled me, blinding me for what seemed like ages. Then it faded excruciatingly slowly. Once I had blinked the last purple spots from my vision, I sa that Will was no longer on the floor in front of me. She was standing, alive with a new energy that before had been gone. Her skin glowed faintly.

What had just happened?

Matt shuffled himself to his feet, and Cornelia once again rose into the air, both looking at Will as curiously as I was. Phobos sneered at my cousin. "You may have won this fight, but the final battle has only just begun." Then he disappeared.

The glow died down and left Will back to normal again. She turned to me. "Nina, what did you do?"

"I..." I went to twist my ring, but my fingertips only touched skin. Raw skin, where the ring had burned me. I looked down at my newly naked finger. The ring had left a circle of red, singed skin where it had last been.

My ring! Where was it? I looked on the floor around me frantically, my hands in a frenzy to find the only thing that had ever meant anything to me.

Cornelia brushed herself off. "Uh...Will? I think the ring is..."

She didn't finish, because the other Guardians had just emerged into our part of the dungeon, and Hay Lin, not bothering to watch where she was going, barreled into Cornelia, and both of them went flying to the ground. "Oh my gosh, sorry!"

I couldn't help it; I laughed. When I was stressed, scared, or panicking, it was usually embodied as a laugh. Behind me, Irma joined in.

"Guardians!" Tynar's familiar voice reached my ears, and I turned to find him propped up on Taranee and Irma's shoulders, limping on his left foot. His eyes met mine. "And...you. Thank you so much."

"Ask and ye shall recieve." Irma said with a crooked smile.

Will looked around at everyone. "Alright. Let's save the praise for later and get out of here before the guards find us."

_**Meanwhile, at the raid...**_

Caleb shoved the butt of his sword into a guard's throat, and the guard stumbled backwards, gasping for air. Taking advantage of the break, Caleb shouted to the rebels, "Retreat! Get back!"

The rebels did as they were told, finishing their fights, picking up their stolen goods, and sprinting to the nearest exit, knocking any guards that tried to stop them out of the way. Once they had reached the path in front of the castle, they tossed the supplies to the watchers who were waiting in the bushes, and they began to run, too. Caleb was glad that this raid had gone as planned. Everyone would be eating well tonight.

The Guardians appeared in the sky, Matt carrying Will's cousin, and Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin lugging Tynar through the air.

"We're going back to headquarters." Caleb told Will, and she nodded.

"We're going back home." She said.

Caleb smiled at her. "Thanks for the help. Again."

"No problem."

The three that were carrying Tynar set him gently on the ground. He grunted in thanks.

"We'll take him back to headquarters with us." Caleb motioned for Tynar to follow him.

The Guardians disappeared through the thick foliage surrounding the path, and with a flash of blue light, they were gone.

_**Back on Earth...**_

Will attempted to do her Calculus homework while I pulled my hair back into a ponytail for bed. She groaned when she came up with the wrong answer and slammed her pencil on her desk. "This is impossible. Who was the beanhead who decided that abusing kids with useless word problems was fun?"

I tugged on my ponytail. "I think I read somewhere that math stands for 'mental abuse to humans.'"

She laughed. "You any good at Calc?"

"Nope. C average, but the occasional B. It's the only class I'm failing in, though."

Closing her book, she turned her desk chair to me. "So, about your ring..."

"Yeah?" No one had brought up what had happened between the ring and the Heart, but Will and Cornelia seemed to have a pretty good idea. After we had come back from Meridian, her friends had hung around until Mom and Susan had gotten back, talking about people at school. I had felt so left out.

Until Irma had mentioned Andrew Hornby. At that name I had perked up, and asked how they knew him.

"He's older than us, but Irma has a gigantic crush on him!" Hay Lin blurted out. Irma hit her with a pillow, but she didn't deny it.

"Why? Do you know him?" Will asked.

I didn't want to hurt Irma's feelings by saying he had flirted with me, so I just said, "I ran into him on the way back here today. He asked me why I didn't look familiar, and I said I was from out of town. We only talked for, like, a minute, tops."

Irma looked more than a little jealous, but she hid it quickly. "Isn't he adorable?" She asked with a dreamy look in her eyes.

"Uh...yeah, sure."

That was when Our parents had come in the door, and the gang said their goodbyes as they walked out. I couldn't help but notice the troubled looks Irma kept on sending me when she thought I wasn't looking. I had felt terrible.

Will continued on with her sentence, snapping me back to the present. "We think it absorbed into the Heart. We don't know how to get it out."

I shrugged, pretending like it was just a piece of cheap jewelry that could be easily replaced. Like it wasn't the only thing I had to symbolize my sister's and my bond. "It's fine. I'm sure we'll find a way."

I didn't talk the rest of the night. Will continued to try her hand at her Calculus homework again, but by the frustrated noises that she kept making, I had a feeling that it didn't go too well. The last time I looked at the clock before I fell asleep, it had said that it was well past two in the morning.

_**At the castle...**_

Phobos leaned back in his throne. Stress was overcoming him.

"My sister's power is dwindling," he said to no one in particular. It was true. Ever since he had absorbed her power two years ago, he had noticed how quickly it began dwindling. It was as if no one but Elyon could wield it correctly. No one else knew, not even his most trusted warrior. Phobos had figured out a long time ago not to trust anyone but himself.

His eyes stayed glued to the floor, where an image showed the Guardian leader and that girl, Nina, fast asleep. The Heart of Kandrakar glowed softly in the leader's hand. The prince wanted to reach out and grab it, but he knew better.

Nina turned over in her sleep. It was funny how Phobos had bothered to remember her name, when he hadn't done so for the Guardians, whom he had now been fighting for a little less than three years. Maybe it was because her sudden presence in Will's life intrigued him. He had never realized that the Guardians had families just as he himself had one. And, just like he shared some of his physical traits with Elyon, this girl had noticeable red highlights in her light hair, although they were not quite as bright as the leader's own cherry-colored locks.

He would never know how long he studied her face, searching for any obvious weaknesses to use to his own benefit. The ring was gone from her finger, but he already knew that it had absorbed into the Heart. What the girl didn't know, however, was that even though the ring was gone, its power stayed with her.

Phobos narrowed his eyes when a tear ran down her cheek. The weakness of emotion never failed. She could be a useful pawn against the Guardians. And maybe, if he pulled her strings just the right way, she might even be a possible ally...

**Some of you might have been expecting a tad more excitement, and for that I really am sorry. I had to face major writer's block with this chapter. Good news is I have an idea for next chapter, but the bad news is that I am going on a trip with my family that will last from Thursday to Monday. Hopefully I will have chapter 8 up sometime next week.**

**I hope you liked it! :) And don't forget to Review, Favorite, or Follow!**


	8. Chapter 8

**I'm back! :)**

**Hope you liked the last chapter, and here's #8. Again, you have no idea how frustrated I am for not putting this up when I said I would. Writer's block sucks!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own W.I.T.C.H. or any characters, symbols, etc. Nina, however, is a product of my imagination, and therefore she is mine!**

Someone shook me awake sometime around eight o'clock. At first, I rolled over onto my other side, groaning in warning to whoever was waking me up. But they wouldn't give up, and I opened my eyes to find Mom standing over me, a bright and happy I'm-in-a-good-mood-this-morning-so-don't-screw-it-up smile on her face. "Nina, come on. You need to get ready for the public interview at the exhibition."

I mumbled a weak protest against waking up so early, but when she took one of Will's shoes and threw it at me, I shot out of my sleeping bag. "I'm up!"

"You'd better be." Mom said as she woke Will in the same manner as she had with me and began picking up clothes around the room. "We need to be there by ten. And for God's sake, clean up in here, you two!"

When Mom left the room, Will fell back onto her pillow and pulled its sides up so they covered her ears. "I hate mornings." I heard her mumble tiredly.

"Yeah, well me, too. But you're already awake, so just come on." I had already changed into jeans and a graphic t-shirt before she finally swung her legs over the side of her bed and stood, rubbing her eyes.

Will shuffled over to where I was by the mirror, taking the ponytail out of my hair. She reminded me of one of the zombies in those apocalypse movies. While I brushed my hair, she sat in her desk chair backwards so she was straddling the back of it. She rested her arms on it and let her face fall on top of them. "What did you paint, anyways?"

Finished messing with my hair, I turned to face her. "You'll see." At her bored expression, I frowned. "You _are_ coming, right?"

"Yeah. Mom wants to see it. Mind if the gang comes, too?"

"Not at all." I turned my face away from Will so she wouldn't see the guilt all over my face. I had told Andrew Hornby where I was going today. He might be there. And Irma would be there. And...

I mentally scolded myself for jumping to conclusions. He probably wouldn't show, and even if he did, I doubted he would talk to me. I bet he was just trying to carry on our conversation the day before.

I still couldn't help feeling bad, though.

_**Meanwhile, on Meridian...**_

The rebels, exhausted from their raid and the celebration they had held for its success, had slept until well past sunrise. It was deserved, or course, but Caleb still wasn't too intent on being one of the only five guards who had bothered to wake up at the normal time.

He watched one of his oldest friends, the big, blue mutant, Vathek, stare as dawn broke over the hillside. Caleb didn't understand what it was that his friend found so captivating about the dim light of a forgotten sun beginning to shine weakly through the dark, dreary clouds of Phobos' magic. Even with the light, the world was still so cold and forsaken. Yet Vathek continued to do what the rest of the rebels had done for as long as Caleb could remember: hope.

Caleb tried to hope, but it usually just turned into doubt. Doubt that the next raid would go well. Doubt that his men would ever overpower Phobos and his army. Doubt that his world would go back to the way it had been before. That was Caleb's weakness: he thought too much. His imagination was too vivid, too wild.

"Caleb," a familiar voice pulled Caleb out of his thoughts. He turned to find Aldarn, his closest friend and second-in-command of the rebels. "Tynar has valuable information from the castle."

"How? He's been out of castle gossip for almost twelve hours. He would have told us already if he did."

Aldarn shook his head. "One of his comrades, another palace guard, just stopped by. He was too afraid to talk to anyone but Tynar, and he left in a hurry. I think Phobos is keeping tabs on his soldiers to look out for any more traitors." He motioned for Caleb to come inside with him.

Looking at Vathek, who now stood at attention, Caleb said, "I'll be right back. Hold your post."

At Vathek's obedient nod, Caleb followed Aldarn back into the rebel base. They descended into a cave that was lit by the torch Aldarn carried. Caleb wondered where the Earth flashlight he had given him was and why he never used it.

Aldarn broke the silence. "I heard about what happened in the dungeons last night. I assume everyone's okay?"

Caleb ran a hand through his shaggy brown hair. "They're okay enough. I was mostly worried about Will's relative. But they all got through the portal, so I'm pretty sure everything's fine."

"That's good."

The two approached a large wooden door built into the stone at the end of the passageway, and Aldarn pushed it open. Inside, Tynar sat on a thin straw mattress on the floor, staring at the wall across from him. He didn't look up when they entered the room, and he mumbled something that neither Caleb nor Aldarn caught.

"Excuse me?" Caleb asked.

Tynar finally set his gaze on the rebel leader. "The Horn of Hypnos has been found. My friend Gobias told me that Cedric plans to use it on one of the rebels he captured last night to find out where the base is."

Caleb stopped short. "He captured a rebel? Who? I thought we did a head count when we got back!" He gave a puzzled look to Aldarn, who shrugged innocently.

"We don't know who, just that it was a man." Tynar wiped his face with his hand, then went back to staring at the wall. "I'm sorry that I can't be of any more help."

Aldarn scratched his arm awkwardly. "Actually, we need a few more men to guard the perimeter. You could help with that...if you feel up to it."

A new smile, grim yet reassuring at the same time, creeped onto Tynar's face. "I'll do it."

_**At the art exhibition...**_

People flocked in the doors, obviously eager to see what each artist had to say about their painting. I was put into a line with five other exhibitioners. The girl in front of me had short blue hair that she twirled around her finger, and her makeup was a little over-the-top, with thick blue eyeliner and deep violet lipstick. I heard that some artists tend to be melodramatic like that, but I had never been that way. Standing out wasn't really my favorite thing to do.

I could see Hay Lin at the front of the crowd, waving and grinning at me emphatically. I waved back, then smiled to myself at her bubbliness. Mom was somewhere in the back, probably trying to push her way as close to the makeshift galleria stage as she could to take

The blue-haired girl turned to me. "Hi! My name's Olivia." She held a hand out.

Not expecting the introduction, I shook it awkwardly. "Nina."

"Where are you from?" She gave me a second to answer before she added, "I'm from Michigan."

"Um...Venice. Venice, Oklahoma." When I get nervous, my voice gets a little high-pitched and shaky, so I was trying to keep how much I said to a minimum. I most likely sounded like the rudest person in the word.

But that didn't faze Olivia. "Let me guess...you painted that picture over there with the girl and the creepy guy." She pointed to a wooden-framed oil painting.

In the painting, a girl no older than six or seven was in a simple yellow dress, out skipping across a field full of flowers. The sky, clear and bright, was a pretty shade of blue that took my breath away. To the girl's left was an ominous group of trees, above which the sky turned blood red and cloudy. If you looked hard enough, you could see a male-shaped figure dressed in black hiding among them, seemingly watching her intently. I shuddered. "No. But that one is pretty good."

"I know, right? It sends shivers down your spine. So which one did you paint?" Her big brown eyes bore into mine curiously.

I looked around, searching for my art. I found it a few paintings down from the one Olivia had pointed out.

Weeks of nightmares had inspired it, although it looked too bright and happy to be born from a nightmare. But it was what had kept me up at night, drinking Mom's coffee even though I hated coffee, avoiding sleep at all costs.

In the center of the canvas, I had painted a small stone picnic table, shaded by tall, dark trees that made up the background and the sides of the foreground. Little specks of light made it throught the leaves of the trees to give the scene an almost tranquil atmoshpere. The grass around the picnic table was green and beautiful, in sharp contrast to the dead, brown vegetation strewn throughout the rest of the ground. A red rose lay on the table, fresh as if someone had just picked it and set it there. I was almost sure that no one would notice the black boot with a glimpse of white paper sticking out of it, which sat under the table, in the shadows.

I like to make people look for things in my art.

The reason I was so scared (scratch that; terrified) of that place was because of the boot. I know, I know. Boots shouldn't be scary; in fact, they were hilarious-looking sometimes. But it was just one boot. Alone and isolated. Just like the table and its little patch of grass. There was a sense of finality surrounding the scene-whoever left the boot, note, and rose knew they weren't coming back. And I hated not knowing why they did it.

"It's that one." I said to Olivia, pointing to it.

She followed my point and gasped. "Oh my gosh. That's really good. Like, really, really good."

I smiled sheepishly. "Thanks. What'd you paint?"

She was about to answer, but right then she was tapped on the shoulder by one of the interviewers. He motioned for her to stand in the center of the stage, where her incredibly realistic still-life painting of a bunny sat on an easel. She took a deep breath. "See you later, Nina."

"Bye. Good luck." I whispered as she walked away.

Her interview went fast. She answered the questions head-on and honestly, not bothering to hide her matter-of-factness. At the end, she gave a cutesy little wave to the crowd before she stepped off the stage.

It was my turn. Like Olivia had, I took as much air into my lungs as I possibly could and let it out, then strode over to the easel where my painting was displayed. A few people gasped at it. I could see Hay Lin giving me a thumbs up with an impressed look on her face.

"So, Miss Evers, what is the name of this masterpiece?" The interviewer asked.

I cleared my throat and found my mom in the crowd so I could look at her while I answered. "I call it _The Point of No Return."_

The interviewer chuckled at this, along with a few people in the crowd. "And why is that?"

I looked at him this time, my face guarded. "You have to see that for yourself. That's the mystery of the painting. You don't know why. It's impossible to understand exactly why."

He nodded slowly. "Very well. Could you tell us the inspiration for this mysterious work of art?"

"It came from a dream." I kept my eyes on the crowd, searching the faces of the people gathered there. I didn't see Andrew Hornby anywhere, and I mentally sighed with relief.

"A dream? Care to explain?"

I bit my lip. "It was just a series of dreams that I had. The image wouldn't get out of my head, so I painted it."

The rest of the questions went just like that. It was actually really easy.

Too easy.

On the last question, the interviewer completely threw me off. "What do you think your dream was trying to tell you?"

I froze, unprepared for such a deep question.

But I didn't have to answer.

Because just at that moment, I spotted him.

Definitely not Andrew Hornby.

It was the guy from the bookstore, holding a weird horn-looking thing with a strange glint in his eyes. He wasn't looking at me. He was staring at Will and her friends, right next to the stage.

Then he put the horn to his lips and started to play.


	9. Chapter 9

**Finally!**

**Have you ever walked into a room with a clear intention of what you were going to do, but then totally forgotten what it was? That's the way this chapter went. I kept on getting these awesome ideas, but then I would get distracted by something else (gotta love ADD, huh?) and completely forget what was going to happen. So...sorry for the wait, but I brought brownies! *hands out human-sized brownies to all followers, reviewers, and favoriters***

**Disclaimer: I STILL do not own W.I.T.C.H., as much as I wish I did!**

Will's head snapped in the direction I was staring, and she immediately grabbed Irma, who was the closest to where she was, and jumped onstage. "Nina, RUN!"

And we did. We ran like the hounds of hell were on our heels, right out the fire exit door to the right of the stage. We didn't stop until we were at least three blocks away. Will loosened her death-grip on Irma's arm and Irma doubled over, panting hard. I put my hands on my knees as I tried to catch my breath. "What...was...that?"

"Horn of...Hypnos." Irma panted before taking a deep breath and straightening up. She looked at Will, who ran a hand through her hair. "I thought we destroyed that thing!"

Will shook her head. "It regenerates, remember? And if that guy has it, we're in for a heck of a walk down memory lane."

"Wait a second..." I wiped sweat from my forehead. "Hypnos as in...that one god that could make you fall asleep? As in hypnosis?"

"Unfortunately. Did the other three get out?" Will asked Irma.

Irma shrugged. "I don't think they saw us until it was too late."

Will cussed, something I had never heard her do. "We have to find Matt and Caleb, and I guess we'll make a plan from there. Irma, you go to Hay Lin's and get Caleb. Nina, you and I are going to Matt's grandfather's pet shop to get Matt. As soon as we get them, we'll call each other and meet up somewhere safe."

Irma nodded. "Got it." She took off down the sidewalk.

Will turned to me. "Anyone who is under the spell of the Horn of Hypnos will do anything that the person who has the horn wants. And if Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin are under the spell, then that's not good at all. Let's go."

"But what about our moms? And Olivia?"

"They'll be fine...for now."

_**Meanwhile, at the gallery...**_

Cedric chuckled as he made his way through the crowd of trance-marchers. The plan had gone perfectly. The rebels believed he had one of their own, and a rescue mission was most likely under way, but without their precious Guardians, only so much could be done. He passed a woman with light blonde hair who stared at him just as blankly as the others did. She held a large black contraption with a lens and a light attached to the top.

"Drop it." He ordered her to test the trance. She obediently let it slip from her fingers and fall to the floor. The satisfying sound of breaking pieces filled the eerily empty room. He smiled. "Tell me your name."

"Natalie Evers." She said in a monotonous voice.

Cedric continued walking to the front of the group until he saw a familiar pair of ebony pigtails. The Air Guardian. Next to her was the one with cocoa skin, and the one with long blonde hair. Fire and Earth. Three down, two to go.

But he never found the other two. Nor was the girl, the leader's cousin, who had been on stage just seconds ago, anywhere to be seen. Cedric growled. They had probably escaped.

He rounded up the three that were present and opened a portal using a magical talisman that His Majesty had given him. They would suffice until Phobos tracked the others.

The visitors to the gallery still stood still and at attention, even though their master wasn't coming back.

_**At the park...**_

We met up in the middle of the park, under a huddle of trees. Caleb's head had been in his hands for the last five minutes while he tried to think of a plan, and Matt and Will were whispering to each other a few feet away. Blunk, who had come with Caleb, sat with Irma and me.

"So, uh, you and Andrew Hornby, huh?" She asked in a low voice.

I plucked a piece of grass from the ground. "No. I just met him on the street. That's all."

"You don't have to sugar-coat it for me."

I laughed uneasily. "I'm seriously telling the whole truth. That was the first, last, and only time I have ever met Andrew Hornby. You can have him."

She smiled at me. "Thanks."

Will came back over to us, followed closely by Matt. "Okay, here's the plan: Apparently, Cedric bluffed to the rebels so they would try and attack the palace, which, according to Caleb, is happening as we speak. So the only way we're going to get into the castle is if we open a portal or find one, and even that is risky, considering the fact that Phobos keeps tabs on all the portals that emit people to and from Meridian. We would have to move quickly. Taranee, Cornelia, and Hay Lin are probably being held in a prison close to either Phobos or Cedric. They know we're going to come and save them, and they're waiting.

"Blunk and Caleb, you're going to distract any guards that we meet on the way. Matt, Irma, and I are going to do most of the magical combat, and Nina, you're going to stay hidden if you can. Since we don't really know what's going on there right now, we're mostly going to have to wing it."

"It's a suicide mission, but we have to do it." Caleb finished, raising his head to look at us.

Irma and I stood. "Then let's get a move on." Irma said.

"Guardians, unite!" Will said, and the blinding light once again took over, replacing the girls' normal clothes with their Guardian uniforms. Matt turned into his magical form, and Will opened a portal. "Ready, Nina?"

I swallowed the nervousness building inside me. "As I'll ever be."

_**In the castle...**_

Phobos leaned back in his chair as he watched the five teenagers and the filthy passling jump into the portal. "As soon as they get here, use the Horn on them and bring them to me. Having all five Guardians under my control will greatly increase my power."

"And the otherssss?"

"I will find uses for them." The prince nonchalantly shooed his servant away with his hand. "Now go."

Cedric bowed. "Assss you wissshhh."

_**And now back to Nina...**_

The portal landed us somewhere in one of the many halls of the castle. Caleb shuddered. "I have so many bad memories of this place."

"Oh, no, really? 'Cause I have a whole truckload of warm and fuzzy ones." Irma said sarcastically.

I stared at the beams supporting the high ceiling, and then at the columns carved in what I identified as Grecian style. Gosh, the palace would be so pretty if the guy would just get an interior designer. And maybe some lights.

Will held the Heart out. "Lead us to the others." She whispered to it like she would whisper to a precious little baby.

Immediately the pink stone bounded out of her hand, and she grabbed the string so we could follow it. It lead us down so many hallways that I didn't care to count, all with the same beautiful architecture and carvings. The fear that was churning in my stomach almost went away as I admired the artwork while we walked.

Will stopped suddenly. "Guards." She hissed.

A slithering sound accompanied the sounds of dozens of footsteps approaching us.

"And Snakeface." Irma added grudgingly. "_Yay._"

Everything suddenly went quiet. Will and I exchanged glances as the Heart disappeared from her hand.

"They're waiting to attack. Trying to see if we're going to charge first." Caleb muttered as Blunk hid behind his leg.

I took a deep breath. "Maybe they don't know we're in this hallway?"

The silence was suddenly interrupted by a serpentine voice. "They're in thisss corridor."

"I think they know." Caleb pulled a sword from his belt. "Nina, get in the shadows so they won't see you."

As much as I hated being the useless sixth wheel, I nodded and obeyed. Who was I kidding? Even with my ring I was barely a match for magical creatures of their level. I found a patch of darkness underneath a table holding a vase full of dead flowers and crawled into it.

The guards rounded the corner in large groups. There had to be at least five dozen of them. Had they been that big when they had captured me before? Caleb, with a war cry, bounded forward and began clashing swords with three of them. Will, Irma, and Matt rose into the air to fight together, trying to wipe out as many as they could. Blunk made faces at some of them and ran around their ankles. At least he was sticking to the original plan.

One last group of guards entered the hallway before the giant half-man half-snake I remembered from the alley brought up the rear. In his hands he held the weird-looking trumpet: the Horn of Hypnos.

And he looked so ready to put it to his lips and play it. My heart thudded in my chest as my eyes went back and forth between Will and her friends and Snake-Man.

I had to do something.

Snakeface knocked Irma and Will out of the air, but they got right back up again and fired some attacks at him. Caleb had already finished off his first three guards, but more were advancing, and fast. Matt, on the other hand, was making excellent progress with his laser vision. Blunk was somewhere in the crowd of guards, but I couldn't see where.

A loud crash echoed off the high walls as Will sent a monster flying into one of the paintings. He slumped to the floor, unconscious. Irma trapped a handful of them in a giant floating water bubble and threw them down the hall, while Caleb fended off a pack of five. Snakeface saw a gap in Caleb's fighting, and swept him off his feet with his tail, then in turn knocked a stunned Will and an angry Irma to the ground. Matt fell to the floor from another swipe of the giant tail.

I had to put my hand over my mouth to keep from gasping loudly as Cedric again put the horn to his lips, aimed at my friends.

No! Without Will, Irma, and Caleb (heck, even _Blunk_), to lead the way, I was hopeless. I couldn't open portals or put up forcefields. I needed them! I began to slide out of my hiding spot.

But then Will, with the wind knocked out of her, caught my eye. She shook her head slightly, then pointed to my right. I followed her finger to find that Blunk was sitting right next to me, his terrible odor filling my nostrils. With a finger to his lips, he showed me the Heart of Candracar glowing softly in his palm. In the little time I had known what Will had called a "passling", he had never once seemed to me to be the quiet and serious type. I guess fighting evil can bring it out in anybody.

The blare of the horn filled my ears. It wasn't even a pretty tune. It was just one flat, unchanging note that swallowed the air like a vacuum. I made a face at Blunk, and he shrugged.

I watched the light leave my cousin's eyes. After the horn stopped playing, she, Irma, Matt, and Caleb were left staring blankly into nothing, slightly slack-jawed and zombielike. It was exactly how hypnosis was in the movies, except without the swinging pendulum or the pretty-colored eyes.

A new thought occured to me: Phobos wanted W.I.T.C.H. because of their powers. And they had their powers because of the Heart. And Will didn't have the Heart because it was currently in Blunk's stinky hands.

And, if Phobos happened to ask where it was, I didn't think that trance-marcher Will would lie to him.

Not good. Not good at all.

Cedric didn't ask, though, so at least that bought us time. Instead, he grinned an ugly, sharp-toothed grin. "Follow me, _servants_."

The new zombies obeyed and slowly stood, then Zombie-Will, Zombie-Irma, and Zombie-Matt rose into the air, while Zombie-Caleb just walked.

Once they had turned the corner and we couldn't hear them anymore, Blunk stood and held the Heart out for me to take. "Heart be safer with Nina. Harder to track your scent than mine anyway."

I shook my head. "I can't-"

Blunk cut me off by grabbing my hand and putting the glowing gem into it. He wagged a finger. "No time to waste. We need to save girls! And boys!"

"Blunk, we can't do anything. They'll just find us faster if we have the Heart. We need a new plan." I closed my fingers so the pink glow was covered a little. "Is there anyone, anyone you know who could help?"

Blunk was quiet for a minute, thinking. The way he tapped his finger to his chin was kind of cute...I mean, if you looked past the druel, dirt, and weird bumps on his face. Then he held his finger up. "Grandmother!"

"Who?"

"Air Guardian's grandma! She an old Guardian! She can help!"

I nodded. "Okay. So we're going back to Earth to find Hay-Lin's grandma?"

His big eyes glittered. "Yes! She help!" He pointed to the Heart. "Make a portal. Slash it in air!"

I did as he said, almost mimicking what I had done those few times with my ring. Sure enough, one of the blue swirling portals appeared. "Alright, Blunk. Let's get a move on!"

_**In the throne room...**_

The Guardians stood before Phobos' throne like statues. He thought it quite funny, actually, that after two and a half years of fighting him, they still ended up losing.

"You're not so rebellious now, are you?" He asked as he descended the steps from his chair. The Guardians still stayed where they were, unmoving, completely vulnerable.

Cedric, who had transformed back into a human, chuckled. "Even the rebel leader is completely under your power, my prince. We can find out where the rebels are holding their base!"

Phobos smirked. "And the other two?"

Cedric wrinkled his brow. "Yes?"

The prince's smirk disappeared from his face. "The other two that came with these four. Where is the leader's cousin? And the passling?"

"Well..." Cedric began to stutter. He didn't want to admit that he had overlooked them, that he had failed to do exactly what His Majesty had asked him-trusted him-to do.

"You didn't get them?!" Phobos yelled in outrage.

"My prince, they aren't important! It's the Guardians you wanted!"

"That girl can open portals! She is still a threat! You let her escape!" Lightning struck just outside the large windows in the throne room, momentarily lighting the prince's angry face so it looked even more menacing and rattling every loose decoration on the walls.

Cedric swallowed the angry retort he was about to shout back. Phobos did have a reason to be yelling; he did not.

"You are dismissed." Phobos waved his hand. "Leave."

Reluctantly, his loyal servant obeyed. Phobos whirled back to face the Guardians. "Give me the Heart of Candracar." He held his hand out so the leader could give it to him.

She didn't stir. "I don't have it."

"What?!" He asked in frustration. "Where is it?"

"With Blunk."

Phobos growled. He turned to the floor where he scried. "Show me that filthy passling!"

_The magical sand he threw on it swirled until a picture formed. The passling was sniffing the ground as he walked like a smelly hound, leading the girl-Nina-down a sidewalk on Earth._

_"Blunk, where _is_ Hay-Lin's grandma?" Nina asked as she fingered the necklace she wore..._the Heart of Candracar!

_"At restaurant." The creature paused to look back at her. "Door in back we can use."_

_Nina took a deep breath. "Okay...but hurry!"_

The image disappeared. Phobos bit back his stress. "Kole!" He shouted.

A young boy, possibly no older than sixteen or seventeen, entered the room when his name was called. "Highness?" He asked as he bowed. His shaggy brown hair fell into his blue eyes as he straightened back up.

"I will need you to go back to Earth." Phobos conjured a picture of Nina on the floor. "And find this girl."

The boy grinned. "That won't be too hard. She already likes me." He let his mind go back to when he had met her, bumping into her on the sidewalk. It seemed as if luck was finally back on his side.

Convincing her to come back to Meridian with him would not be hard at all.

**I bet you didn't see THAT coming!**

**Anyways, I am finally answering some of your questions:**

**1. No, Nina probably won't transform or fly. She has a sort of if-life-gives-you-lemons thing going for her right now, so I'm going to leave her current powers be. I like it better that way. Besides, I REALLY don't want a Mary Sue on my hands, you know?**

**2. PhobosxNina is most likely not going to happen. It's a little...weird for me. (And this is coming from a huge Phobos pairing fan) Maybe I'll write another OC fanfic where it happens, but I just don't see it happening in this story.**

**3. The Elyon question will be answered soon...**

**Read, Review, Favorite, or Follow to your heart's content! I love hearing from my readers! **


	10. Chapter 10

**Wow, it's been a long time since I've updated! I'm sorry, guys!**

**Well, since you've been waiting for so long, I'll keep my intro short.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own W.I.T.C.H. or any of the show's original characters. Trust me, if I did, Irma's gosh darn top would be BLUE in the beginning song like it should be!**

**Enjoy! :)**

Yan Lin offered me a mug of hot chocolate and a plate of cookies before she sat down in the chair across the table from me. When Blunk and I had gotten to the Silver Dragon and explained why we were covered in dust and out of breath, she had ushered the last guests out the door before she closed up the restaurant.

"I'm sorry we didn't help." I said to break the silence.

The old woman looked up at me with a twinkle in her eyes. "Don't be sorry. You know better than anyone that listening to Will has more benefits than not."

A noise that sounded like a cross between a starving alley cat digging into its food and my dad crunching potato chips came from the floor, and I looked to see Blunk chowing down on some leftovers from customers' plates. My nose wrinkled in disgust. "Ever heard of chewing with your mouth closed?" I asked semi-politely.

Blunk shoved one more piece of orange chicken in his mouth before he looked at me. "Blunk tried once. Couldn't eat big foods." As he said that, pieces of who-knows-what sprayed from his mouth and onto the pile of newspapers that Yan Lin had laid down for him to eat on. She was a smart old lady.

I turned back to Yan Lin. "So what are we going to do?"

"This situation is beyond my help. We need higher, more divine guidance."

I grasped the Heart, which hung around my neck, tightly. "Um, no offense, but I don't think that praying to God is going to save Earth from a group of mind-controlled magical creatures and their evil master."

Yan Lin alughed softly at that. "No, we're not praying to a god. We are going to see the Oracle."

In my Greek-mythology junkie stage, I had learned that an Oracle was a person (most likely a woman) who recieved messages from the gods and relayed them to mortals in the form of prophecies. I had thought that that was just a tad too easy to fake, pretending that you talked to immortal beings and making up random futures for anyone who was desperate enough to ask for one. Oracles were supposed to be myths, right up there with witches and fairies, and, oh yeah, Guardians and twenty-feet-tall snake monsters. Apparently, everything I had grown up to believe was quickly unraveling at the seams.

"And where is the Oracle?" I allowed myself to let go of my skepticism and really try to learn more about the world my cousin lived in. It was harder than I thought.

"In Candracar. The place that Will and her friends' powers-And the Heart, of course-come from."

"How do we get there?"

Yan Lin stood and folded her hands in her robe the way she always did while she was standing. She didn't answer me, but instead walked to the door. "Do you know that boy out there?"

I took a sip of my hot chocolate. "What boy?"

She pointed to one of the windows to the right of the door. Through it I could see Andrew Hornby just outside, waving to me with a big smile on his face. It had started to rain, and his brown hair was plastered to his forehead at weird angles.

I smiled back. "Yeah. That's a boy I met yesterday. Could you let him in? I bet he's freezing!"

Yan Lin nodded and opened the door. I quickly hid the Heart under my shirt. Blunk scrambled under the table with his meal.

"Hey, Nina." Andrew said, striding over to the table.

I brushed a strand of hair behind my ear. "Hi. What are you doing here?"

"Well, for starters, you're Will's cousin, and Will and her friends like to hang around at this place. I figured I would find you here." He looked around the room, as if noticing for the first time that it was empty. "But where are they?"

Yan Lin jumped in. "They're doing homework at Taranee's house. Nina and I were having some girl time."

I blushed at that, but Andrew grinned. "Cookies and hot chocolate. Lucky you."

"Yeah," I smiled sheepishly. "Want one?" I held a cookie out for him to take.

He shook his head. "I just ate lunch. So, uh, are you doing anything else today?"

"Um..." I looked up at the ceiling like I was trying to remember if my vacation schedule was full. _The last time I told him what I was doing, he didn't show up, _a little voice nagged in my head. I looked back at Yan Lin.

She didn't skip a beat. "We were going to go get the other girls and go shopping." She managed to say with a straight face. "You two can go on a date some other time."

I let my mouth drop open. _Did she really just say those words?_

Andrew scratched the back of his head, while I awkwardly stared at my hands in my lap. Yan Lin looked way too pleased with herself.

"Alright, then." Andrew said finally. "Uh, I guess I'll come back later. Bye, Nina."

I watched him leave, wishing I didn't have anything to do, and at the same time, mentally scolding myself for wanting to go out with him because that would just make what I said to Irma a lie. And I didn't want to be a liar.

Out of nowhere, a purple-colored portal opened in the middle of the dining room.

"That would be the way to Candracar." Yan Lin said proudly.

I raised an eyebrow. "Who made that one?"

"The Oracle, silly!" She said, gesturing for Blunk and me to follow her through. Then she walked into it, leaving us to go in after her.

Blunk tugged on the leg of my jeans. "That boy smell funny."

I laughed. "Maybe you're just finally getting a whiff of your own scent."

His head shook violently. "No. Blunk smell good. Boy smell like monster."

"Fine." I rolled my eyes before I went to jump in the portal. "He smells like a monster."

Blunk was on my heels as we went through the portal, and on the other side, he crashed into me from behind, knocking me over. I sat up, rubbing the part of my back he had probably bruised. "Thanks for that. Now I don't need to crack my back." I said sarcastically.

Everything around us was a shade of purple. We were in some sort of temple or castle that pulsed with magic. High walls surrounded us, adorned with carvings and statues, all purple. I marveled at the beauty of the one-colored masterpiece that I guessed was Candracar. I was _so_ going to paint it later.

A man dressed in purple-tinted robes approached us, Yan Lin at his side. He only looked to be in his mid-twenties, and there was a perfectly-groomed goatee on his chin.

"Nina, this is the Oracle." Yan Lin gestured to him.

"Hello, Nina." His voice was creamy and smooth, naturally gentle.

"Um, hi." I returned the niceness with a smile.

His peaceful face twisted into a frown. "So, what you said is true."

I pulled the Heart out from under my shirt. "Yes. But I have the Heart, so that's good, right?"

He nodded. "That does make it harder for them to have powers."

"So what are we going to do?"

The Oracle studied my face carefully. "For right now, we have a lot of thinking to do. You're in terrible danger because you have the Heart, and Phobos has loads of monsters that he can send to kidnap you. The safest place for you at the moment is here."

I gulped. "But what if I give it to you? Or Yan Lin?"

"You would still be hunted. Nina, we know about your ring." He looked at me solemnly.

"You...you know?" I managed to choke out.

Yan Lin chuckled. "The Council of Candracar knows everything."

"Follow me," said the Oracle. "I think you may want to see this."

So we did. He lead us through a maze of rooms, finally stopping in a ballroom-sized space, still purple and still breath-takingly gorgeous. In the center sat a pedestal that held what looked like glowing balls of energy. A cat-like woman in violet robes similar to the Oracle's stood watch over them. She held a protective hand over the orbs as I approached to get a closer look.

"These are the Aurameres. They are the sources of the Guardians' powers, which are transferred to the Heart." The Oracle explained. "And this is Luba. She is the protector of the Aurameres."

Blunk excitedly hustled over to the pedestal and tried to reach out to grab one of the orbs. Luba slapped his hand away.

"Blunk not steal glowing balls. Only assess value."

Luba ignored him.

I smiled kindly at her. "Hi."

She returned my hello with an almost inaudible grunt.

"Nina, there is something I want to show you. Do you see the pink Auramere?" The Oracle asked, pointing to the rose-colored orb. "This is the source of Will's powers. We've noticed that there is a strange pattern inside of it, almost like it absorbed something that looked like a ring."

I gasped and looked closer. Sure enough, there it was: the same circular stone set in cheap metal, painted a shade of pink because of the glow-ball. "That's my ring!" I whispered.

The Oracle nodded. "Now, because it is a part of the Heart of Candracar now, we won't be able to separate them. But there is another condition I would like to tell you about. You had certain new...abilities...after your ring reacted with the Heart, did you not?"

"Yeah. I could open portals and I think there was a time when I used a force field. Why?"

He ran a hand over his bald head. "Because you still have those abilities."

"What?" I asked, breathless.

"And that is why Phobos would still hunt you. He doesn't like it when people besides himself can open portals. He sees you as a threat."

I laughed humorlessly at that. "What am I to him? I'm just a human, and besides, I don't even know how to open portals without my ring." I held the hand with the burnt skin around the ring finger up to further my point.

Yan Lin clucked her tongue. "I-"

She was cut off by a loud crash in another room. Luba jumped and immediately threw herself over the Aurameres.

"What was that?" My question was drowned out by another crash. The floor shook, and I was thrown off balance.

The Oracle leaped into action. He began sprinting to the noise. "Get out of here!" He yelled as he ran.

With one last look at Luba, who was almost completely covering the Aurameres with her body, Yan Lin, Blunk, and I ran.

"Nina, open a portal!" Yan Lin shouted over the noise coming from the next room.

"I don't know how!" I shouted back.

"Just concentrate! Open your mind; let it flow out of you!"

I stopped running and closed my eyes. _Portal! Appear!...Please..._

Nothing happened. I tried again.

Nada.

Zip.

Zilch.

I sucked in a deep breath. I imagined the pretty, swirling vortex of blue that made up a portal, the way I was so attracted to the hypnotic glow. Once I was sure it was perfectly conjured in my mind, I ordered it to appear.

"Portal!" Blunk screeched. I opened my eyes to see him scrambling for it.

Yan Lin followed him, and I did as well. We emerged into Will's apartment, which was completely abandoned because Mom and Aunt Susan were still at the exhibition.

_Still?_

I looked at the clock over the stove. It was past four o'clock in the afternoon. The interviews were only supposed to last about an hour, and all the commotion that Will, Irma and I had caused had to have stopped them. Gosh, that morning seemed like such a long time ago.

Unless the Horn of Hypnos had gotten them, too!

I massaged my temples. So my cousin, her group of friends, my mom, and my aunt were all under the control of a psychopathic tyrant?

Wonderful.

"Nina, we stay here." Yan Lin told me. "Going out is too dangerous for you."

I pursed my lips. "My mom and Aunt Susan are still at the exhibition."

"We will find them later." Yan Lin said sternly.

"No." I said, shaking my head violently. "We are going to get them. If you won't, I will."

The old woman sighed. "Nina, there are monsters after you. How about we have a girls' night? We can dance to music. I've still got some funk in me!" She demonstrated one of her "funky" dance moves.

I bit back a groan of frustration that she was trying to distract me. "I-"

Just then there was a knock on the apartment door.

People have _got _to stop doing that!

Yan Lin gave me a warning look. "I open the door. You stay quiet."

By that point, I was so caught up in my anger and fear that, instead of listening to her, I beat her to the door and peered through the peep hole. "It's only Andrew." I said, calming down immediately. "Can I let him in?"

Yan Lin looked at Blunk, who crawled into the trash can in the kitchen. "If it will help you to have someone else here, then I guess..."

I flung open the door. "Hey." I tried to make myself look visibly together and happy to see him.

"Hey." He said back. He glanced behind me to where Yan Lin was. "Oh, right. Girl time. Am I interrupting anything?"

Yan Lin plastered a kind smile on her face. "Not at all. Come in!"

"You sure?" He asked me.

I nodded. "You're fine. We were just talking. How did you know where Will's apartment was?"

He shrugged. "I know people. Everyone knows everyone in Heatherfield."

I stepped aside so he could come in. "Well then. I guess you're welcome to come inside."

_**3rd POV**_

_As he entered the quaint little apartment, he held a bag behind his back..._

**Yes, my friends, a bag. What will he do with it? Find out next chapter!**

**Thanks for reading, and don't be afraid to follow, favorite, or even review, 'cause I love hearing from you guys!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey guys! Happy summer! :)**

**I hope this is what you've been waiting for!**

Andrew took a look around Will's room and whistled. "Wow. You two are slobs."

I laughed and sat on her bed. "So what do you want to do?" Despite what was going on in my life at that moment, I completely forgot about it and actually let myself be in a good, flirty mood.

He shrugged, still keeping a safe distance away from me as he leaned against the wall. "I didn't have anything planned."

"What's that behind your back?" I spotted a brown paper bag in his hand, which he quickly hid behind him.

"It's...uh...herbal tea." He pulled a teabag out of the sack. "I brought it with me in case...in case we got thirsty..." His face turned a shade of red, which made him look even cuter.

I laughed. "You have a weird way of surprising girls, you know that?" He grunted, a small smile on his lips. I fell back onto Will's amazingly soft comforter and looked at the ceiling. I could feel Andrew's eyes on me the whole time, like he was scrutinizing my every move. To make it less awkward for him (or it might have made it more), I propped

my head up on my arm to gaze at him. "So, um, you're in Will's class." I stated, trying to make conversation.

"A couple grades older, actually." He said, eyeing me like I was a bomb he was about to set off. "And you're her age, I'm assuming?"

I smiled at him. "Yeah. She's a few months older than me, of course, but we're both sixteen right now."

He messed with the teabag in his hands. "You know, I dig the red highlights."

"What?" I put my hand to my hair. "Oh, right." It did, in fact, have red highlights, giving it a strawberry blonde color. Red hair ran in Will and my family; she had just gotten hit harder with that gene than I had. "Thanks." My suddenly flirtatious attitude flew out of me like air from an un-tied balloon, and I was back to being my normal, not-so-bold self. My cheeks flushed.

There was a crash from the kitchen, making both of us jump. With mutually confused looks at each other, we made for the source. My mind involuntarily began conjuring gruesome scenes of Yan Lin and Blunk being attacked by some of Phobos' monsters, or worse, Cedric. When we rounded the corner, however, we found a perfectly okay Yan Lin glaring sternly at something under the table. I guessed that something was Blunk. She spent a few seconds holding the stare before she realized that we were in the room, then plastered a fake smile on her face. "Just a plastic bowl dropping. Nothing broken." She assured us. "I was making tea. Good way to de-stress. Would you like some?"

"Actually," I said, glancing at Andrew, who was also glaring under the table suspiciously, "Andrew brought an herbal tea mix. Maybe we could try his."

This snapped him back to attention. "Oh, right. My tea. Yeah, it's really good, not to mention good for you. Allow me; you should rest." He told Yan Lin, who had been nodding and holding her hand out for him to give her the tea packets. She smiled appreciatively at him, then showed him where everything to make tea was in the kitchen.

While they were occupied, I crouched down next to the table and peeked under the floor-length cloth. Sure enough, Blunk was hunched in the corner. He gave me a totally innocent look, but I wasn't so easily fooled. "Blunk try to warn you about boyfriend," he whispered, "but you no listen, so Blunk decide to show you that he is what he smells like. Monsters smell bad."

I checked over my shoulder to make sure neither Andrew nor Yan Lin was looking my way before I turned back to Blunk. "Listen, Blunk. First of all, he is _not _my boyfriend. Second, he is absolutely _not _a monster, so stop calling him that. And third, have you even smelled yourself?"

"Nina?" Andrew asked from the counter. "What are you doing?"

Thinking fast, I took my shoe off and stomped it on the floor. "Spider," I said as I met his ocean-blue eyes across the room. He smirked at me like we shared an inside joke.

"The tea's almost ready," he told me as he turned back to the pitcher of hot water.

"This is not over." I warned Blunk, putting the tablecloth back down.

Yan Lin appeared by my side. "Better get up or he will think Will's apartment is having an infestation."

I obeyed and followed her into the living room to watch TV while Andrew finished up with the tea. A few minutes later, he handed a steaming mug to me and one to Yan Lin. "Nothing more refreshing than a hot cup of joe." He said cheerfully, sitting down beside me on the couch, another mug in his hand.

"Thanks," I said. I wrapped my hands around the ceramic dish, letting the warmth from the liquid inside chase the cold from my fingers. Andrew was sitting so close to me that his leg brushed mine...not that it seemed to bother him. He kept his eyes glued to the TV, obviously interested in the baseball game Yan Lin had switched it to. I raised the mug to my lips and took a small sip. It tasted like heaven had been turned to a sweet-tasting nectar that spread a fuzzy feeling throughout my body as I swallowed. I took a bigger drink this time, not even minding the burn on my tongue from the tea being too hot. When I swallowed this time, I nudged Andrew with my elbow. "This stuff is amazing! Where did you get it?"

Yan Lin set her mug on the coffee table. For a second, her face, which was lit up by the light from the TV, had an almost eerie expression, like she was frowning in anger. But that went away, and she turned to Andrew with a smile. "Very good. Maybe you should come over more often, eh?" I blinked. Maybe before had only been a trick of the poor lighting.

Andrew laughed. "I knew you'd like it." I envied him - how chill he was around people he wasn't familiar with, and how easily he could win their respect. A new idea occured to me. My friend back home, Leslie, would die if she heard that I had been flirting with a boy that looked like a celebrity just waiting to happen. I had to take a picture with him. I got up to get my cellphone.

Only to get a head rush. I held my head. "Dang," I whispered.

"Nina? You okay?" Andrew asked, taking my hand. My skin tingled. _He just touched my hand!_

Whoa! What the heck was wrong with me? Since when did I go ga-ga over a boy I just met, like, literally two days ago?

I pulled my hand away. "I'm fine," I told him, starting for Will's bedroom.

Big mistake. I had only gotten to the hallway when I lost my balance and fell into the wall. Behind me, I heard Yan Lin stand quickly. "Nina!"

"Leave her be," said Andrew in a strangely calm voice, "she said she was fine."

Shuffling followed. "You." Yan Lin uttered, venom laced in her tone. With an "oomph", something was thrown into the couch.

Using the wall as support, I turned myself around to see what was going on between those two. I couldn't believe my eyes. Andrew stood glaring down at Will's now-ruined sofa, in which Yan Lin lay, gasping for air.

"A-Andrew. What are y-you doing?" I stuttered groggily. Why did I feel so tired all of a sudden?

He flashed me one of his killer grins, only this time, I saw a new side to it: dark, feverish. "My job."

Blunk emerged from under the table, weilding a stainless steel pot from one of the cabinets in the kitchen. "Monsters never win! Always lose in end, yes!"

With a clang, the pot collided with a bolt of magical energy that came from a magical talisman that Andrew held in Blunk's direction. "You silly passlings always think you can evaluate everything. But you can't. Which is why" - Andrew grabbed Blunk from midair and threw him into the TV, sending glass and sparks everywhere - "it is so easy to kill you."

If I had been more alert, I would have rushed to help. But now I could barely gasp in shock. Why hadn't I listened to Blunk? Passlings can smell anything, Yan Lin had told me about an hour before. Even disguised monsters. I was so stupid!

I slid to the floor, unable to watch Blunk writhe in pain from the electricity coursing through his body. The apartment spun around me. I clutched the Heart of Kandrakar underneath my shirt.

No. This was not how the world would end. I wasn't going to let some psychopathic tyrant from another dimension take over Earth in his thirst for power. And I definitely wasn't going to allow a monster who had been posing as a hot guy drug me and get away with it. My fists clenched as I realized my only way out.

Andrew dusted himself off. "How are you feeling, Nina? Tired or exhausted? You know, most people would be sleeping like a rock by now. You never cease to amaze me."

I tried to push myself from the floor, but I was too weak. I had to be able to get up to carry out my plan. Where was adrenaline when I needed it?

Andrew didn't look like he was in any kind of hurry. He watched my pathetic display with a sneer on his face. "Give it up. You're not going anywhere." He chuckled. "Well, except Meridian. The prince will be so happy to see you again. He asked for you personally, you know. Apparently you're quite the portal-hopper."

"Pl-please." I said in my most miserable voice, trying to stall. "Help m-me."

Another short laugh. "Just sleep. It will be easier for you and me."

"Don't count on it," I muttered. With a new strength, I jumped up from the floor, and, before Andrew even had time to react, I had swiped my hand across the air and thrown myself into the portal I had opened. It closed behind me immediately.

I landed in a crumpled heap on a rocky surface. The new strength left me.

The last thing I remembered before I blacked out was a flashlight shining in my face, even though my portal had taken me to Meridian.

_**3rd POV**_

Aldarn knelt down next to the girl. She didn't look any older than the Guardians themselves, and she was certainly dressed like she was from Earth.

One of his men grunted from behind him. "What are we going to do with her?" He asked.

Aldarn was about to answer when he spotted a soft pink glow coming from the trinket the girl wore around her neck. The Heart of Kandrakar! How she had it, Aldarn wasn't sure, but he wasn't about to let this girl wander off without questioning her first. "Take her to the infirmary."

"Is that-" The guard asked, noticing the necklace.

"The Heart of Kandrakar; yes." Aldarn answered. He stood and turned to the group of three men behind him. "If she has the Heart, maybe she can tell us where the Guardians and Caleb have gone."

His men nodded and picked up the girl, who was taken to the rebel base.

Aldarn took a deep breath, looking at the palace in the distance; it seemed even more sinister than before, if that was possible. "Something big is coming." He said to no one.

_**Meanwhile, in the castle...**_

Phobos slammed his fists on the arm rests of his throne. "How could you let her slip through your fingers?!" He shouted in anger. His voice carried through the enormous room surprisingly well, echoing in just the right places to intimidate the poor boy.

"She was about to pass out from exhaustion." Kole replied calmly. "I don't understand how she managed to stand, much less summon a portal. It won't happen again, I assure you."

Phobos held a hand up. He had felt something. A surge of power that could mean nothing but...

"Cedric!" He thundered. His humanoid servant appeared next to Kole. "Bring me the girl. And this time, don't. Let. Her. Get. Away." Cedric bowed and left the room. Phobos turned his attention back to his only truly human soldier. "As for you, there won't be a next time. You shall rot in the dungeons for eternity."

**I guess Andrew had it coming, huh?**

**Please review and if you have any questions or ideas as to what has happened so far/what should happen, just let me know. Seriously, guys...I love getting new ideas! Don't be afraid to give me some for what you want to happen next! ;P**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hello, fellow W.I.T.C.H. fans!**

**Welcome to chapter 12, at last :). Be prepared for some questions to be answered!**

**Enjoy!**

_The sun isn't supposed to be purple._

That was the first thought that went through my head as I entered one of the most beautiful and outlandish groves I had ever seen. Gently swaying grass reached just below my knees, and every once in a while, there was a grouping of the weirdest flowers in a splatter of colors. I knelt down next to a yellow and orange one to touch its octagon-shaped petals. They felt like silk between my fingers, soft and delicate. Above me, the trees surrounding the clearing created a leafy canopy, filtering just enough sunlight to create a calm, serene atmosphere. But sure enough, as I looked through another hole in the weaving of greenery, I saw the sky...and the violet-glowing sun.

A particularly bright ray of indigo-tinted sunlight had found its way through the thick overhang, reflecting off the slowly lapping water of a spring at the base of a tree. I approached it cautiously, still not entirely grasping when or how I had gotten to the grove in the first place. Acting on an impulse, I sat next to the water and dipped my hand in. Something about it made me feel...whole. Complete and aware of everything around me. Then the feeling faded, like a tablet dissolving in a glass of liquid.

"You felt the power of the Light of Meridian," came a voice next to me. I looked up, not even disturbed by the new presence of a girl no older than me, who now sat cross-legged at the place where the water washed into the moist ground. Her long, white-blonde hair was tied in two elaborate pigtails, each of which ended with silver rings, and her light blue eyes were so deep and wise that I had to reassess my previous evaluation of her age.

"Who are you?" I asked as she began pooling the springwater in her own hand and letting it seep through her fingers.

Her eyes met mine again. "I can't say. These boundaries won't let me do too much."

Even though I had no idea what she meant by "boundaries", I nodded and turned my attention back to the spring. "Where am I?"

"The Heart of Meridian." She said, gazing around at the grove proudly. "It's so much prettier in here than you would think once you've been to the actual Meridian, don't you agree?" She smiled coolly, as if it was a twisted joke, then brought her water-filled hand up to her face. "It gets old after a while, though. Once you've found every hiding place and secret passage, you realize it's not all it seems to be. Just a clearing with a nice setup."

Remembering that my hand was still in this girl's springwater, I retracted it. "Why are you here? Is the Heart of Meridian like the Heart of Kandrakar? Does the Heart of Kandrakar have a person inside it, too?"

She laughed, a cute tinkling laugh that I would imagine coming from a mermaid or a fairy. "No, I'm a special case. Like Will may have explained to you, every world has its own Heart. Even Earth does. I used to wear the Heart of my world in the form of a necklace as Will does." She gingerly put her slender fingers to her bare collarbone, her kind smile fading. "But now I'm trapped inside it."

I pretended to take a sudden interest in peeling the polish from my fingernails. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Listen," she put her hands on my shoulders, and I looked back up at her. "That's not why you're here. You need to save Meridian from Phobos. And in order to do that, you're going to need a little help. As soon as you wake up, draw what you saw here. And if you make a mistake, don't erase it. Just keep going until you're done. The picture will guide you. I can't tell you much, but if you do as I say, my world might still have hope yet."

My eyebrows knitted together. "I don't understand. Why-"

The girl put a finger to my forehead. "The answer you seek will be revealed in your art."

Then the grove faded away, and I was falling in darkness.

_**A few minutes later...**_

My eyes snapped open. The ceiling above me was made entirely of stone. If I didn't know any better, I would have said I was in a cave...

Wait. How was I in a cave?

The events of my last conscious memories rolled over me like a bulldozer. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to get them out of my head. There was something I had to do, something I needed to remember.

Paper! I needed paper! And a pencil. I had to draw that grove while it was still fresh in my mind.

But where was I? The last thing I recalled before I had passed out was landing on hard, sharp rock. Maybe I had appeared in the cave?

Yet that didn't explain why I was currently laying on something soft and somewhat cushiony. It felt like a bed covered in rough cotton sheets, one of which was pulled up to just below my ribcage.

I tried to sit up, and my head suddenly began pounding. "Holy crap!" I gasped, putting a hand to my forehead.

"Oh, no no no!" A woman whose plump face emanated kindness emerged out of nowhere and rushed to my side. "You must rest! One does not simply drink liquified fireshade and walk away like nothing has happened! No, you stay in bed." A weird accent made her sound like a cross between Italian and Spanish. She helped me stay sitting up like I was incapable of doing it myself, and put a cup to my lips before I had time to react. "There you go. Fireshade just takes it out of you, makes you weak. Ewan nectar will bring your strength back in no time!"

I hadn't the slightest idea what fireshade or ewans were, but the concoction the lady made me drink tasted like I had just thrown up in my mouth. When I gagged, she took it away. "I know, I know. It has a terrible taste, but you have to finish it." She pressed the cup back to my mouth. I took big gulps, careful not to let the taste process on my tongue. When it was gone, she smiled at me and gently set my head back on the pillow, which I could tell was stuffed with straw. "Now let that kick in and you'll be good as new in a few hours' time."

My eyes widened. "A few hours' time?" I squeaked. I didn't have a few hours! I needed to find a way out of here, despite how sweet the woman had been to me. I had no idea where I was, much less how long I had been asleep. _And I needed to draw that grove!_

She was about to reply when a new figure came into the room. "Thank you, Trylle. You may leave now." The masculine voice said gently. I squinted to get a better look at him as Trylle pushed my hair out of my face with a motherly smile and left the room. He was wearing simple trousers and a weird, incredibly out-of-date shirt. I guessed from this that Meridian was still behind the times. He looked familiar, but I still sat back up and braced myself.

Noticing my fear, he stopped about three yards away from me. "I'm not here to hurt you. Only to ask questions."

I didn't answer, though my body relaxed slightly. The pounding in my head had dulled to a low throbbing.

"I'm Aldarn, a friend of Caleb's." He told me, then waited for me to respond.

I took a deep breath, realizing why he looked so familiar. "You're part of the rebellion. I helped rescue Tynar that night."

Aldarn nodded. "I'm wondering if maybe you know where Caleb and the Guardians are. You know, since you have the Heart of Kandrakar."

I scratched my arm nervously. "Yeah. Um, about that..." How do you tell someone that his friend and the only people who could save him are in the thralls of an evil overlord? "They're kind of..."

Aldarn gave me a solemn look. "I see."

"But I think I know how to help them." I blurted. I couldn't stand seeing that disappointed expression on anyone's face.

He immediately brightened. "How?"

I pushed the sheet off my legs and swung them over the side of the cot. "I just need a pen - I mean, something to draw with. And paper, or whatever you have."

He raised an eyebrow, but nodded. "If it helps Caleb, then I will go get some. Don't go anywhere." And then he left the room.

I almost patted myself on the back. _Not bad, Nina._

A few minutes later, Aldarn returned with a piece of parchment and, surprisingly, a pencil. I smiled at him and got down on the floor to use it as a hard surface. My limbs protested, but I ignored them and began to draw. This time my drawing was different; I let my hand guide itself across the blank paper, not even stopping when I knew I made a mistake with one of the branches of a tree in the grove. I tried to imagine the flowers, the grass, and let the memory of them seep into the picture. Yet no matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't get myself to draw the image of the girl sitting by the spring. The whole time I was doing this, Aldarn looked curiously over my shoulder.

My hand stopped abruptly, and I searched the drawing for anything I might have missed. It was all there. I held it up to the light for Aldarn to see. "There's supposed to be a clue in here." I told him.

He squinted at it, trying to help me find it. "What kind of clue?"

"I don't know," I said, realizing that it might take hours before I found what I was looking for. My hopes deflated.

Aldarn cocked his head at it. "May I?" He asked, putting his fingers on the edges to take it from my hands. I nodded and let go. He examined it for the next five minutes, then set it back in my lap. "It looks sort of like a grotto Caleb and I used to explore all the time, but the placement's wrong. See here, where this group of flowers is?" He laid a finger on a spattering of the exotic plants to the right of the spring. "These should be over here, next to the carving." He traced a line to a bunch of rocks I hadn't noticed before, one of the etched with the faces of women wearing crowns.

I moved my face closer to the parchment. "Who are those people?"

"All of the former queens of Meridian." Aldarn pointed to the first face on the left. Though she was insanely beautiful, she had a rugged look about her, like she had fought many battles to get where she was. "This is Reana. She reigned from the time she was eighteen right up until the day she died. Her greatest achievements were stopping the wars with Elden and Brea, and she also helped rebuild the village after her brother went berserk with jealousy and destroyed a good portion of it."

"That sounds familiar." I muttered sarcastically.

Aldarn grunted and pointed to one of the last faces, a fresher, deeper indent in the rock. "Phobos and Elyon's mother, Weira. Queen and Light of Meridian from her fifteenth birthday until she disappeared when Phobos came to power almost sixteen years ago."

I traced her long, flowing hair, a familiarity blooming in my mind from the sight of her face. "She was pretty."

"Elyon inherited some of her looks." Aldarn stood, turning away like he had said something wrong.

I rose to my feet with him. "Tell me about Elyon. Do you know where she is now?"

He drew in a deep breath, and didn't answer for a few moments, like he was contemplating what he should tell me. "No one knows for sure, not even the Guardians. A few pessimists here believe her to be dead." His tone darkened. "I just think she's trapped somewhere, held prisoner by Phobos so he can feed off her power whenever he needs sustenance." He glanced back at me. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason." I lied, though my brain was working at a million miles an hour. _I think I just met Elyon!_

Aldarn stared at the Heart around my neck. "We would have taken it from you, but I convinced them that if Will entrusted it to you, then we should trust you as she does. I hope that you don't prove me wrong."

"I promise I won't." I said sincerely. "I-"

Something down the hall exploded, cutting off my sentence and rocking the floor.

"You have _got_ to be kidding me." I growled. First Kandrakar, now this! Couldn't I be somewhere for more than twenty minutes without something breaking or someone trying to kill me?

Aldarn ran to the door and poked his head out. "No!" He pulled himself back in and shut the door. "Cedric is here! You have to go!"

I backed into the wall behind me. "Holy crap." Another bang, this time closer to the door, echoed around the cave. I didn't even know if I had enough strength to open another portal.

Then everything went eerily quiet. Aldarn and I exchanged confused looks. He put a finger to his lips and pointed to a wooden medicine cabinet in the corner of the room. "The lower left shelf is a secret passage." He whispered.

"What about you?" I whispered back. My heart began pounding in my ears.

He shook his head. "If I have to die to keep the Heart of Kandrakar out of Phobos' hands, so be it. Now go!"

I bit my lip and obeyed, crouching low to crawl into the cabinet. A hole was cut in the wood of the back, and behind that was a small, dark tunnel. "Is there any light?"

He tossed me his flashlight, which I caught. "Thank you. For everything." I told him before closing the cabinet door.

Just in time, because at that moment, the door to the hospital room was crushed to splinters, and Cedric's roar nearly rendered me deaf.

**Not too much action in this one, but it's essential to the plot. **

**Yay! Elyon contacted Nina!**

**But was it as a projection or from beyond the grave?**

**Find out in the chapters to come! **

**Thank you guys for reading and being so patient, and don't forget to review, follow, or favorite!**


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